Herald updating to serve print, digital readers better

Dear Reader,

Back in May, you saw changes to your Herald that I explained were laying the foundation for bigger things to come. You’ll see the final phase of our plan rolled out Wednesday.

We’re updating our print and digital products, as well as our internal operations, in response to an extensive reader study conducted by our parent, The McClatchy Co.

It was no surprise to learn that many of you now get your news digitally and want it whenever and wherever is convenient – be that on your computer, phone or tablet. That is reflected in the surge of digital readership we’ve been tracking at The Herald. This year so far, we’ve averaged more than 772,000 unique readers of our digital products every month.

Still, many of you prefer the good old paper version we’ve been printing for 143 years.

Our challenge is to balance our resources to meet the needs of all of our readers.

That becomes easier when we understand what most readers have in common.

The McClatchy reader study told us you respect our long history of delivering news. In an era when information sources have proliferated, you view us as a credible source.

We heard that in your fast-paced day, you want quicker reads on the day’s major news. At the same time, you want a deeper read on one or two topics that deserve more context and analysis. You appreciate The Herald’s tradition of the well-researched and well-reported story, but you would like us to be more selective.

You value commentary and would like it more front-and-center. It does not need to be relegated to the editorial pages. This was particularly true for those of you for whom social media and opinion sharing are a big part of daily life.

You also enjoy our personalities, the writers and columnists you look forward to reading when you pick up The Herald or go to heraldonline.com.

How does all this translate into what you’ll see on Wednesday?

You’ll be seeing several short summaries of stories on the front page of the printed Herald. We’ll be selecting one or two stories of the day for a deeper dive that will appear on our new “Insight” pages. Our columnists will be featured more regularly on 1A. We’ve done that for some time with our highly read columnist Andrew Dys, but you’ll be seeing more of our writers featured this way, even commentary that always has been housed on the Opinion page. Of course, when we do that, we’ll label it “Commentary.”

Digitally, we’ll be changing our headlines so you can assess more quickly what’s included in a story. We’re also in the process of making technical changes that will allow you to “enter” a story online at a place that particularly interests you, a bit like selecting a DVD track without having to watch the whole thing. That feature will be coming in the next few months.

We’ll also be mindful of using what we call “alternative storytelling” techniques in print and online. You’re looking for quicker, easier reads. Another way we can provide that is by relying less on narrative and, instead, telling the story with a combination of words, photos, videos, maps, graphics and other presentation styles.

We’re going to a more streamlined approach to print production, including standardized ad sizes. This will help us to prepare more speedily the print edition, allowing us to devote additional time to our digital products. This is a way to produce the printed Herald more efficiently without compromising quality.

On Wednesday, Editor Paul Osmundson will provide you with many more details to accompany what you will see firsthand in The Herald and heraldonline.com.

All of what we’re doing supports our mantra: “News All Day, Your Way.”

To learn more, go to new.heraldonline.com. Starting Wednesday, you’ll also find a feedback form on this site through which you can tell us what you think, should you wish to do so.

As always, thank you for reading The Herald and heraldonline.com.

This story was originally published July 11, 2015 at 6:14 PM with the headline "Herald updating to serve print, digital readers better."