by Sally Deneen
Deneen, a former reporter for the Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is a freelance writer.

Is it The News's turn to laugh? Rival reporters in southeastern Florida have been calling Boca Raton's reinvented newspaper The Flamingo News, chuckling over its menu of news McNuggets and its Miami Vice-pastel decor, including the pink flamingo on the masthead. To smile, anyway. Seven months after The News's relaunch, the once-struggling paper is 25 to 30 percent larger than it was a year ago, and editors say its news hole is up between 15 and 20 percent. It may be too soon to talk about success, however. The News says circulation has jumped by 4,500, to 26,500. But it is luring readers with ninety-nine-cents-per-week subscriptions, less than half the cost, for example, of the competing Palm Beach Post. Advertising is up, even in this recession, but a few employees wonder whether it is up enough to carry the editing-intensive paper when Knight-Ridder cuts the umbilical cord by the end of 1991, forcing the paper to rely entirely on its own money and talent. (Knight-Ridder has spent nearly $ 3 million on its "25/43 Project" -- named after the television-era readers in that age bracket -- which has overseen the rebirth of The News.)

Watching the newspaper evolve was like watching Procter & Gamble develop and test-market a new toothpaste, says Pat Elich, a former editor at The News. Members of the 25/43 Project brain-stormed with more than 200 editorial and other Knight-Ridder employees in six cities, then zeroed in on Boca Raton-area residents and advertisers. Focus groups were asked what they worry about, what they do in their spare time, and so forth. Finally, on October 11, the end product hit the new pink news racks. So what's new? For one thing, no stories jump off page 1. Ever. On January 17, the day after coalition forces launched the air war against Iraq, the page-one story contained eleven paragraphs. But in what has come to be called the "Boca Jump," readers were referred to additional maps, charts, and stories -- some of them long -- inside. These included plenty of local reaction (FOR BOYNTON RESIDENT, MIDEAST WAR SEEMS ALMOST UNREAL). To take a slower news day, on February 12 the lead story was four paragraphs long (BUSH: GROUND WAR ON HOLD). The other main items on the front page that day were a six-paragraph state budget piece (with a mid-length Boca Jump), some local residents' pictures and comments about a water problem, and the daily Local Opinion column, in which a reader wrote about how a particular local grocery store "displays the true spirit of the community."

National and world news briefs are accompanied by numbered maps. On January 2, for example, the number 6 on London in the world map connected with item number 6, which explained that James and Charlotte had been declared the most popular first names for children in that city. Other lures: an index to every advertiser, a regular "Today's Hero" column, professional wrestling in the sports pages, and lots of photos and bite-size snippets and graphics.

Outside The News, reaction tends to be divided between those who see it as an innovative example of what newspapers must do to lure back readers in the age of television, and critics who see it as an example of what might kill off newspapers -- the withering away of analytical, investigative, and detailed reporting. "It's pandering to people with the attention span of a gnat," says James G. Driscoll, The News's editor from 1976 to 1981 and now an editorial writer with the competing Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.

Wayne Ezell, current editor at The News, finds that kind of criticism unfair, and he points to examples of serious journalism his paper has produced, including a detailed look at Florida's auto-insurance "crisis" (October 11, the day the redesigned paper was launched), an extensive examination of how a local banker undermined his bank (December 23), and a series of features from Israel during the war.

Inside The News, the reaction is also mixed. "There's kind of a confusion, still, on what does the paper want to be. Cutting edge? Or a colorful, cheerful local paper?" says reporter Patrick McCreery. Some reporters complain that they must schedule certain stories three weeks in advance, and that they are called upon to write more stories and to produce many formatted short items. McCreery says that this kind of pressure makes it possible for single-source stories to creep into the paper. "If this is the future of journalism," he says, "I want to get out." But court reporter Bill Orlove says the new format lets him write two good stories instead of one medium-length one. "Some of the stories I've been really proud of," he adds.

A few Boca Raton innovations are spreading to other newspapers. California's Orange County Register borrowed The News's how-to-read-the-stock-tables guide; at least two Knight-Ridder papers are considering ad indexes; and The Kansas City Star sometimes uses the "Boca Jump."

Not all Kansas City Star reporters are impressed, however. This lyric recently appeared on the paper's newsroom bulletin board, to be sung to the tune of "Beer Barrel Polka":

Roll out the Boca, we'll have a paper that's quick

Roll out the Boca, too many words make you sick

Keep it all nice and easy

Makin' more money's the trick

Now we're gonna roll out the Bocas

Until the circulation numbers click!

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