They conduct Mid-Tier studies in 40 markets as well as a National Syndicated Study conducted in the top 75 U.S. markets nationwide. They use a mailed 24-page booklet resulting in 1,022 interviews in Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito Counties over two months during Spring 2010 and 2011.
The first thing we learned is that in any given week, the Sentinel audience in print and online reaches two thirds of Santa Cruz County adults. That’s 135,000 local adults every week. That’s four times the weekly audience of the most listened to radio station, twice the weekly audience of the most watched cable network and 65% larger than the most watched television station audience.

To our surprise, the weekly Sentinel audience in print and online is larger in size than the number of county adults accessing Google. Can you believe that?

However, it’s not just size that matters. Here too, our audience characteristics are impressive. The Sentinel audience mirrors the county in gender and race. It’s slightly older and somewhat better educated with more college graduates. Sentinel readers are more likely to be employed and have an average income six percent above the county average. Sentinel readers are more likely to own their homes, which have a higher average value.
I think it’s also important to stress that almost 6 in 10 county adults under the age of 35 are members of the Sentinel’s weekly audience. It’s nonsense to suggest that young people don’t consume our content.

All of this informs our construction of advertising packages and recommendations. We value frequency over size, both in print and digital because it takes advantage of the Sentinel’s strengths. That’s true of all media. Why frequency is effective: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_frequency

I have a quick story about advertising and ad frequency. Early in my career, I was on a sales call with my boss who told a prospective client he’d see more benefit buying flowers for his wife than buying just one small black and white advertisement. That’s truer today than it was then, given the demands on the consumer’s attention.

Next time, I’ll share audience characteristics based upon behavior. For example, 129,000 adults dined at a Mexican restaurant last month and the Sentinel’s audience included 91,000 of those folks.

You knew people in Santa Cruz read the Sentinel, but you might not have known that almost everyone reads the Sentinel. Thanks to the research, we can now say for sure. And if you are ever part of a conversation with someone saying that no one reads the paper, you’ll be informed enough to tell them that is a bunch of baloney.

There are about 1,350 daily newspapers in the United States and it’s been a dream a mine since I was 17 to be the leader of one. There were more of them 25 years ago, of course. Despite that, I am optimistic that for years to come we will continue to serve the community as a sort of public square for news and information. Folks underestimate us.

These past six months have been busy learning about Santa Cruz and understanding our operation’s strengths and weaknesses. I’ve joined the boards of United Way and the Santa Cruz County Business Council and I became a member of Santa Cruz Rotary. I have met a lot of people and still have many yet to meet.

It feels like the right time to begin my blog. Its purpose will be to inform the community about ourselves. There are lots to write about given the changes in media these days. Newspapers are adapting to a world where it’s more competitive than ever to capture the attention of consumers. Our job is to adjust what we’re doing to meet this challenge. I will strive to write every two weeks or so.

A quick bit about me–I’m from Grand Junction, Colorado.  I went to Syracuse University to study business and finance. From there, I went back to Colorado where I worked at the Daily Camera in Boulder. After seven years there, I spent a year in Los Angeles at the Daily News and the past eleven years at the San Jose Mercury News in a variety of advertising leadership roles. I used to work for Mike Jung, the Sentinel’s previous publisher. I am grateful for the work he did. The Sentinel grew stronger under his stewardship.

I have a wife, Sarah and we have two boys. She teaches Spanish and they play basketball and football.

We’ve already made a bunch of improvements. We enlarged our daily weather graphic, expanded our Home and Garden content, added an Auto section and returned our Thursday Guide section to a tabloid format. In addition, we now have Android and iPhone apps to complement our website and its accompanying mobile version. Thus, there are lots of ways to access the content we create and the content we assemble from members of the community.

I’ll close this first post by first expressing my gratitude to everyone that has welcomed me to Santa Cruz. You certainly can assess a new community quickly by the welcomes you receive and Santa Cruz has been tremendous in welcoming me to the community.  Also, the Sentinel team has been great. I find them to be professional, low drama and eager to participate in transforming the Sentinel for the future.