Several papers have launched special sections that are driven not by news but by a hope of capturing advertisers and certain groups of readers. Hoping to attract female readers, the Shawnee (Okla.) News-Star, for instance, prints a magazine featuring articles about Oklahoma women 10 times a year. It has a snappy title: "She's OK!"

In addition, papers such as The Post have been conducting extensive research, holding focus groups of non-readers to find out whey they don't buy the paper. Even though most Post survey participants seem to be up on the news, they don't get it from The Post newspaper, instead gleaning it from television, the radio or Internet sites, including The Post's, according to a study that began last summer and recently ended.

Readers and non-readers of The Post said they want more plan-your-day information on local news and entertainment, for instance. Also, they'd like the paper to be easier to navigate. More like the Web site.

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A bulky package
The top reason given for not buying the ink-on-paper Post?

"This bulk thing," said Post Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr., referring to the 12 1/2-by-11-inch Post newspaper, which weighs as much as seven pounds on Sunday. "It's the only way for us to present news plus advertising in that package. It can't get smaller and it shouldn't get smaller.

"When you go on the Web," to read The Post, Downie said, "it looks smaller."

Just building a Web site is no guarantee of instant profits. Papers are having a hard time convincing advertisers that an ad on a Web site is as effective as one in a newspaper and worth the hefty rates traditionally charged by big city newspapers. Executives said this adds to newspapers' vulnerability -- their traditional product on the wane and their new one slow to take off.

Chicago Sun-Times Publisher John Cruickshank, for instance, paid a visit to Hollywood studios late last year to sell them on buying ads for coming movies. His paper had just weathered a circulation-inflation scandal and he admitted that the Sun-Times' sales figures were not as high as had been advertised. But he pushed the paper's Web site, saying that its readership had increased over the year.

"They just glared at us," Cruickshank said. "They said, 'Don't give us any [bull] about readership.' "

Then there is the revenue gap. For instance, for the first nine months of 2004, The Post booked $433 million in ad revenue. For the same period, Washingtonpost.com reported $45 million in revenue, hardly enough to support a newsgathering staff the size of The Post's.

Ads on a newspaper's Web site actually can be worth more to advertisers than ads in the paper, said David D. Hiller, vice president of publishing for Tribune Co. Reason: Unlike a newspaper ad, which provides no feedback, Internet ads can tell advertisers how many times the ad has been seen, and, with Web site registration, the demographics and location of the viewer.

"Circulation is only a blunt proxy for readership," Hiller said. Papers may eventually convince advertisers of the value of Internet ads, he said. "I'm not sure you can right now."

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