Innovations: "Fire the columnist?" Engaging readers

Phil Boas, deputy editorial page editor, The Arizona Republic

[EMAIL: phil.boas@arizonarepublic.com; WEB: http://www.arizonarepublic.com]

Board game "You Slash The Budget" that uses a full page to graphically walk readers through a budget-cutting session and its pitfalls. Takes a very dry topic and makes it fun.

"Time to can Dan?," an invitation to readers asking if we should fire a community columnist (Dan Durrenberger) who is a firebrand. Results were mixed with people saying they'd cancel their subscription if we kept him and others saying they'd cancel if we fired him. This, of course, was done with Dan's blessing.

Tiny question boxes that can run with editorials, letters to editor, guest columns, etc.

All-visual section front. A week after the Space Shuttle Columbia went down, we ran a very optimistic painting by space artist Robert McCall with the headline "To the future." It worked to ease the mood after a week of disaster coverage. Inside we ran a Q and A with the artist on why he is still high on the future of space flight.

"Public Pulse," a panel of average readers who answer question of the week. Done all by e-mail, so becomes logistically simple way to work diversity into newspaper. Can also be sued to bolster packages by quizzing panelists and packaging their answers with column.

"Plugged In," a kind of inside-out newspaper in which knowledgeable newsmakers and experts write commentary online and for the newspaper in short bursts that are easily accessible to readers. (The part of "Plugged In" we use in the newspaper needs no Web component. It's like an informed public pulse. Just line up 30-plus interesting, recognized people in the community and invite them to submit 100 words or less on any newsy topic. Gives you a half dozen short commentaries each week to break up the inside of the Sunday perspective section. It really works if you line up people whose names and opinions are valued in the community. Also, they pick the topics, so you get a lot of different topical entry points for readers.)

"The 10 most important people in Arizona history." Brought together a group of historians and had them vote on who are the most significant figures in the history of the state and explain why.

Memorial Day: Listing the Arizona soldiers who died in war.

Memorial Day: Devoting the entire editorial page to the Sullivan Ballou Civil War poem with a serene photo of a Civil War battlefield.

9/22/03