CONTACTS:
Janell Johnson, CMU Public Relations and Marketing
(517) 774-3197
[email protected]
John K. Hartman, author of "The USA TODAY Way 2 the Future"
(517) 774-7110 (office), (419) 352-8180 (home) or (419) 351-7793 (cellular phone)
[email protected]
AUTHOR TELLS HOW USA TODAY SETS PACE FOR OTHER NEWSPAPER IN JUST-RELEASED BOOK
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- The online version of USA TODAY has eclipsed its newspaper rivals' Web sites in three key measures -- size of audience, time spent at the site, and profitability -- according to the author of a new book about the national newspaper.
The newspaper also leads its print rivals in weekday and weekend circulation and readership, making it No. 1 in both venues, according to Central Michigan University author John K. Hartman in his book, "The USA TODAY Way 2 the Future," published in March by Stipes Publishing of Champaign, Ill.
Tom Curley, president and publisher of USA TODAY, calls Hartman's book "a must read for serious students of journalism who want to understand and shape its future."
Hartman, a CMU journalism faculty member since 1984, wrote and published his first book on the subject, "The USA TODAY Way," in 1992. Hartman has been quoted and his work on newspaper issues cited in USA TODAY, The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, Globe and Mail of Canada, the Times of London, the Chronicle of Higher Education and Editor and Publisher.
Other key points in the book include:
-- how John Curley, the chief operating officer of Gannett Co., led a resurgence of the newspaper industry;
-- how USA TODAY's circulation doubled in 15 years while its competitors either lost readers or failed to gain significantly;
-- how profits and hard news quieted USA TODAY's critics;
-- how Gannett's NEWS 2000 program forced other papers to be more like USA TODAY before it was relaxed and modified;
-- how USA TODAY became a preferred outlet for news from the White House;
-- how Canadian newspaper baron Conrad Black may make his National Post the next national newspaper in the United States;
-- how The New York Times spent $7,000 apiece for 3,000 new subscribers;
-- how USA TODAY turned Pennsylvania State's dailies-in-dorms program into a major national breakthrough in attracting young adults to read newspapers;
-- how USA TODAY's "ad meter" became the Super Bowl of advertising;
-- how the high-minded "journevangelists" turned out to be false prophets; and
-- how USA TODAY remains the best example of how to get young adults and other disaffected readers like women and minorities to read a daily newspaper.
-- jj --
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