What's the Story?

Gannet Company's USA Today Newspaper has built a readership of 13 million in thirteen months. Cathie Black is president of the paper, and she is trying to correct the major problem the paper has - lack of advertising. Market research helped to produce the kind of newspaper that most people wanted to read. Even though surveys show that the paper's readers are young, affluent and professional, advertisers are reluctant to buy space in the paper. One of the reasons for this reluctance may be because the paper seems to have an identity problem. Advertisers are unable to decide whether the paper is a magazine, a supplement to local daily newspapers or a primary source for news. Al Neuharth, the force behind the paper's establishment, agrees that identity is a problem. He believes this will work out, and sees the paper turning a profit by 1987. Losses could force the termination of the paper if advertising revenue does not pick up in 1984.