No circ impact from redesign: Sun-Sentinel Circ chief

By Lou Grant | Nov 19, 5:30 AM

Conde Nast Portfolio reviews the reaction to the Tribune Co. redesigns: not so well received would be my summary, but read it for yourself. “Done right, redesign can boost both circulation and advertising revenue—and that results are usually quick,” the report says Alan Jacobson of Brass Tacks Design as saying.

“We can’t find any impact from the redesign,” Norbert Ortiz, the Sun-Sentinel vice president for circulation and consumer marketing told Portfolio.

Granted that the redesigns came online late in the year, however, financial reports by the Tribune Co. are showing declines in circulation, with the Chicago Tribune cited as among the decline leaders in revenue. Let’s review a few things we do know about the circulation in Chicago. First, it occurred despite the newspaper being able to follow the Barack Obama campaign and the post-season campaigns of the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Cubs. Second, it occurred despite the newspaper adding the delivery of the Sun-Times Media Group to its portfolio in mid-2007. And third, it occurred despite the leadership of the current publisher, Tony Hunter. Hunter was then in charge of circulation.

The redesigns themselves are the child of the industry’s leading illuminary, Lee Abrams. “In his latest incarnation as newspaper savior, Abrams, 55, says his aim is to convert occasional and Sunday readers into regulars. While each makeover is distinct, Abrams' tastes have been influential,” according to the Conde Nast Portfolio piece by Julia M. Klein.

“I thought we really had to work on reclaiming things that newspapers had traditionally owned,” from investigative reporting to election and crime coverage, the piece quotes Abrams. Then it notes, “even as he extols such labor-intensive endeavors, though, Tribune has continued reducing its payroll—shedding 75 newsroom jobs in the most recent cutbacks at the Los Angeles Times and leaving the editorial staff about half its size in 2001.”

You call him a savior; I’ll call him an illuminary.

Tagged: Tribune Company, Chicago Tribune