AJC's Wallace: Attracting Youth To Print Not a Priority

Julia Wallace, Editor-in-Chief of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, delivered the 29th annual Ralph McGill lecture at the University of Georgia yesterday.
After her speech, Wallace fielded questions from the audience.
When asked how much of a priority, or what efforts the paper is making to attract young readers, Wallace replied that the management made a big decision over the past year to NOT try to attract young readers.
"Young readers are clearly not going to come to newspapers," Wallace said.
The AJC wants to focus its efforts on people who will come to read the newspaper, while at the same time build up its digital operation because that's where young people will wind up, Wallace said.
"We have a huge opportunity for young people in the digital world," she said.
The definition of what is "news" may be different for young readers, Wallace said, noting the popularity of so-called "fake news" shows from comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
The paper would not try to include such humorous news stories ala the Onion model to appeal to young readers because the core traditional readers who don't watch the Colbert show would be put off by such content, Wallace said.

Welcome to Youth and News blog

Welcome to the UGA Youth & News blog! As the name suggests, this blog will discuss issues pertaining to youth and news.
For example, Deloitte last month released a survey that contradicts traditional research about the media consumption habits of youth, in this case, ages 13-24.
The survey, which was conducted by the Harrison Group, found that "millenials" (the youth in this age bracket) still have an affinity for print products. Previous research and various academic theories suggest that teenagers are more likely to use the Internet for various news, information and entertainment needs although television has remained the most dominant media form.
Such news, research, conferences, trends and issues are most likely to be topics discussed on this blog.