In remote St. George, Utah (pop. 50,000), the leading paper, the only paper, is The Spectrum, circulation 24,000.

But there's also the glossy, high-end St.George Magazine, published by The Spectrum. Then there's a home building and remodeling guide and an outdoor recreation guide, which The Spectrum also puts out. Add to that a how-to guide on everything from selecting a diamond to a Lasik surgeon to buying a truck.

And that's just the beginning. In all, in this typical small American town, The Spectrum puts out 40 niche publications. That's about one for every 550 readers.

That makes The Spectrum a pretty interesting newspaper story in its own right, but also for what it says about the direction of American newspapers in general as they attempt to reinvent themselves.

Out is the notion of one central, broad-reach publication with a little something for everyone. In is the idea of creating a slew of niche publications for virtually every segment of a community's population.

“More newspapers are experimenting as they realize that the one-size-fits-all newspaper is not meeting audience needs,” says Diane Hockenberry, director of audience development for the Newspaper Association of America. “It’s about re-identifying who the reader is and going out and selling it to people.”

Newspapers for years have put out real estate, bridal and newcomers guides, all no-brainers. But just in the last year the sheer number of such niche publications has mushroomed, along with the variety, and it's taken place at both large and small papers, such as the Spectrum.

There's been a fundamental change in attitude as well. The old guides represented incremental revenue flow into the main revenue pool of display ads and inserts and classifieds running in the paper. But with that pool suddenly being drained off by new competitors, such as the internet and local cable, these new publications are being seen as increasingly important venues, no longer ancillary.

“The idea is to supplement coverage for audiences that are already familiar with the newspaper with specific, non-daily or niche publications to reach non-consuming audiences,” says Sue Clark-Johnson, president of the newspaper division for Gannett Co., which owns The Spectrum. “All of our newspapers have embarked on an understanding of who our audiences are and where the gaps are and one way to fill them is niche publications.”

Newsrooms across the country are creating these niche publications through contributions from staffers, freelancers, even contributions from readers, and they are not limited to print. They can be an electronic version of a publication delivered via email or a podcast. “It’s really just about providing the right content for your audience. However they want it,” Hockenberry says. 

Gannett has been a leader in the niche movement, and the country’s largest newspaper chain was certainly among the earliest, beginning some five years ago.

What's gotten most of the attention, both at Gannett and other larger newspaper groups, have been the free tabloids in larger markets targeting young adults, who everyone knows are not big newspaper readers.

“We were able to attract advertising that the newspaper didn’t normally attract, such as outdoor equipment and coffee houses,” says Clark-Johnson.

What's gotten far less attention is all the other niche publications newspapers have begun churning out. At the Arizona Republic, circulation 435,527, there are now some 100-plus special sections and niche products. The Gannett paper was featured at an NAA seminar last year to highlight the diversity of its product portfolio. Says Hockenberry: “Since then we have seen more newspapers developing niche products.”

Today there are nearly 1,000 niche publications across Gannett’s 89 papers, and more are coming, says Clark-Johnson. “What we are really striving for is being able to offer advertisers a variety of different platforms depending on what audience they are trying to reach. It’s another evolution of newspapers reinventing themselves.”

Hockenberry cautions that newspapers must ensure that all these new offshoots maintain the core paper's editorial values. There's also the risk of flooding the market with a mess of offshoots that no one will read.

 “There is danger of creating too many products, but if they can be very specific in meeting the needs of the audience and the quality is high, it is a good model to follow.”