Monday, September 17, 2007

USA Today - brief on the McPaper at 25




USA Today
, which has been around now for a quarter century, is a newspaper that pedants still love to put down. Its Page One editor, David Colton, has just penned an afterword for a new edition of The Making of McPaper: The Inside Story of How USA Today Made It. The newspaper's vintage launch issue is pictured above. Colton boasts that his rag continues to add readers and attract advertizers in an otherwise-declining industry.
He writes in his blog
It took 11 years, but in 1993 USA Today hit a daily circulation of 2 million and started to make a healthy profit. It’s now the nation’s biggest-selling paper. This headline captures its early frothy approach to the news: men, women: we’re still different.

By the 1990s, stories were getting longer, resources were plentiful, and you were guaranteed that your story would be read by colleagues on the campaign trail. They had little choice—the paper was dropped at their hotel-room door every morning...At speaking engagements, I still use my reliable opening line: “I’m from USA Today, so I’ll be brief.”

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