BOSTON GLOBE SEEKS SUNDAY GROWTH : Bulldog edition intended to serve readers short on time and to add key circulation

NewsInc, Sept 27, 1999

The bulldog will bark in Beantown on Oct. 23, when the Boston Globe introduces an early edition of its Sunday paper.

On sale as early as 9 a.m. Saturday, the new product will not revive the tradition of bulldog editions of old, where scrappy competitors fought head-to-head. Now the competition is readers' time, and the Globe hopes that by putting 40,000 Sunday copies on the street more than 12 hours earlier than now, it will attract new buyers and boost circulation.

"About the same time that everyone else started to experience Sunday problems, we did as well," says Robert Saurer, the strategic planning manager of the New York Times Co. paper. Sunday circulation fell from 751,377 in spring 1997 to 748,726 in spring 1998, then plummeted to 730,420 in spring 1999, according to FAS-FAX reports from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Unleashing a bulldog had been considered for several years, Saurer says, but "for reasons of cost was something we never pursued." That changed in April: "When push came to shove on it, it became a fairly effective way to get some increases in single-copy sales."

While the Globe "didn't do direct, specific market research" about the viability of a bulldog, the interdepartmental project team found other papers with healthy bulldogs and decided to take the plunge. The edition's front page will have a special early edition logo, and be either similar to the current Sunday front or a "teaser version" with many photos highlighting what's inside. "We're not sure which one is going to run more often," Saurer says.

The sports desk has added staff in order to fill the 24-page Sunday section Friday night, picking up copy from the Saturday paper, which closes at 10 p.m. Friday, two hours before the bulldog. Sports, main news and metro will be made over on Saturday.

Two copy desks toil Friday evening, one for the Saturday paper, one for the bulldog, and deadlines for some pages have been advanced as much as four hours. The 9 a.m. Saturday press start for some classified sections will be moved up to 7 a.m. Transportation will incur overtime to add 17 driver shifts, with deliveries to stores to start as early as 9 a.m. and be done by 2 p.m., Saurer says.

Experiences elsewhere have helped the Globe lay its plans, Saurer says. In Florida, the Tampa Tribune launched a bulldog last year but put it to sleep in August because sales didn't justify the effort. Advises Tribune Publisher Reid Ashe: "Understand the distribution channel." Stores were not prepped to display the bulldog early and often, Ashe says, so a disappointing 3000 were sold -- less than one-one-hundredth of the Sunday Tampa Tribune-Tampa Times' circulation of 332,329.

In Baltimore, The Sun has circulated a bulldog for years. In the early 1980s, it closed at 5 p.m. Saturday, but now its front page is laid out by 6 p.m. Friday and papers can be on the streets as early as 4 a.m. Saturday. About 30 percent of the 60,000-copy press run shares a ride with Saturday editions out to dealers.

The newsroom's attitude toward "the dog" has changed as well, says Sunday Editor Gil Watson. "Forever we treated the bulldog as a collection of page proofs. Not any more." Now, he says, it must be "absolutely pristine." Makeover on Saturday is limited to main news, metro and sports, with presses rewebbed to add four pages to the sports section.

In Boston, Saurer acknowledges the Globe "could back out if it's not successful," but suggests it's more likely the bulldog will be the precursor to a new approach to weekend newspapers, where some of today's Sunday content and ads are distributed on Saturday. Says Saurer: "This might be a good first step in changes in the marketplace in terms of reader needs on the weekend."