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Strengths of USA today start with its overall format. It is user-friendly, allowing for easy access and quick comprehension for time-pressed readers. They have Blue Chip circulation where bulk quantities are sold at discounted prices to universities, hotels, airports and restaurants and are free to customers. Over 500,000 USA Today paper are distributed daily through this method. USA Today was the first to use front-page advertising and its late deadlines for articles and advertisements allow it, in many cases, to have more up-to-date coverage than competition.
USA Today’s archives on its website allow users to do a free, unlimited search of articles back to 1987. The paper has the largest numbers of readers in U.S. (2.3 million) and USA Today online has 53 million visits per month with 10.5 million unique visitors.
Some critics see USA Today has being full of gimmicks because of its tight, short stories, its colorful graphics throughout and its casual writing style. Newspaper readership is in decline. In fact, weekly readership had declined from 58.6% in 1998 to 51.6% in 2005. In 2005, revenues would have declined 1.6% without inclusion of Knight-Ridder’s partial acquisition. Readership is strongest among adults aged 65 and older (70% reads newspaper daily). Only 50-60% of baby boomers read a newspaper on a daily basis.
Some opportunities for USA Today include continued growth of its International edition which is available in more than 90 countries in Western Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia and Spin-off media such as Baseball Weekly, with 250,000 copies, a partnership with CNN for a sports show and SkyRadio which offers live radio on Commercial flights.
USAToday Online was introduced in 1995 as subscription service and converted to free service in the same year. This has proven to be a means to increase readership and cut distribution expenses as some estimates have approximately 14% of readers switching from newspaper to online news. Eighty-six percent of readers own a computer and most have internet access. Competition has more costly publications and web services