For years newspapers have fretted over the young, as anxious moms might, trying every new way to court the 18-24 non-reader, including high-profile launches of toss-away tabloids dumbed down with celeb newsbits. Largely, it's been an exercise in frustration.

But wait, there's a new trend afoot at newspapers across America, a new focus of publishers' attention. It's about going after readers they've long had, just simply doing a better job of it. Those readers are America's moms.

America's moms make so much sense because they make most of the buying decisions in most households, and certainly the bulk of the everyday purchases most important to retail advertisers.

Much of the buzz over the new mom focus has come with the rise of the Examiner chain, whose free dailies in San Francisco, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., all made a point early on of targeting young mothers, to the extent of offering home delivery in target neighborhoods.

But actually the new thinking was catching on even before at the Charleston, S.C., Post and Courier, which began shifting its focus to mothers and families three years ago.

“It’s so funny that all these newspapers are just starting to realize the value and power of families with kids,” said Craig Rogers, director of marketing for the Post and Courier.

Which raises an interesting question: Why didn't someone think of moms before?

A good part was certainly that newspapers knew they already had moms, and in their ever-growing panic over declining circulation, the bigger issue has been snagging readers they didn't have--and what they see as the next generation of readers--the young.

But another part has to do with the stodgy, male focus of traditional newspaper managers. As local monopolies, or near monopolies, papers traditionally put little value on understanding their readers' different wants, operating on the premise that one paper fits all.   

What's caused all this to change is the realization, dawning on publishers and advertisers, that mothers are increasingly hard to reach through traditional mass media, such as the daily newspaper and network television. They are no longer a given, and that has made them a more valued demographic.

Moms these days are very busy people, certainly busier than their mothers, and less likely to be at home.

"My kids are much more involved in school and enrichment activities (than I was), and I find myself literally in between those things," observes Laura Gordon, senior vice president for marketing at the Dallas Morning News. "Moms are not in the home and easily reachable. They are much more mobile than they have ever been."

That understanding is being translated into a flurry of niche publications online and in print that have moms as their target reader.

"Every mom will tell you that the best source of information for moms is word of mouth," Gordon says. "They get information from other moms. Mass media is trying to replicate that credibility through niche products."

Some newspapers have started web sites specifically targeting moms and offering blogs where they can ask for advice about topics ranging from pediatricians to parks.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution is offering new parents a special low introductory price--$10 a month--for a subscription in an attempt to get the paper into more homes and the hands of more parents, parents being people who buy diapers and a whole lot of food.

At Charleston, the Post and Courier advertising and circulation departments have collaborated to target at some 16 zip codes where it believes it can add new families of readers. Then it began to filter everything it does, from marketing to news coverage, to identify the needs of those moms.

"Newspapers used to think that marketing to women meant food, fashion and what to do, all that fluffy stuff," says Rogers. "That's not what moms stay awake over."

Rather it’s over issues like school quality, health concerns, college savings and crime.

The goal of the paper is to do a better job relating to those concerns, and the shift has been gradual, says Rogers. He hopes in time to develop a web site devoted to moms as more and more mothers go online to get their news and information.

At the Dallas Morning News, management teamed up with the American Press Institute and its Newspaper Next project last April to create a new initiative to target mothers.

Key to finding and keeping moms, says Gordon, is helping them solve problems. To that end, the paper has started a mom blog. That's led to helping some harried mothers find a decent Halloween costume but it's also been a learning experience for the paper. It has learned some of the specific points of frustration its mom readers face.

"Clearly it’s a sizable audience and there is a gap," Gordon says. "Women feel so time-starved that, for example, planning your child's activities can take as much time as executing the actual event, which is almost like doing it twice."

The paper is building a database to create a one-stop shop for moms that will eventually allow moms to rate experiences and help book events such as birthday parties online. "I think through the insight that we get there we could differentiate ourselves through mom-tested recommendations," Gordon says.

"Acknowledging that moms are an important target can complement what we do in the paper and help our advertisers and their ability to reach them." 

Meantime, The Indianapolis Star launched IndyMoms.com the Monday before Thanksgiving, thinking the holidays would provide them a good time for a soft launch to work out the bugs. The site's popularity has since exploded, says editor Jennifer Gombach, and a companion print product is scheduled to be launched March 23.

"It's a natural extension of the web site, and we will do a lot of reverse publishing," Gombach says. "In our first issue we will have a summer camps guide, and we'll do a top picks for readers and refer them to the web site for the complete list.

Says Gombach: "I have spent half my life in bleachers. We wanted to create something moms could carry with them. It will be 5X8 and fits perfectly into a purse, diaper bag or computer laptop bag."