Memo: Former South Group chief Hudler retires

Hudler

Following is a memo U.S. newspaper division President Bob Dickey sent today regarding long-time executive Carol Hudler. Hudler was president of the Nashville-based South Group of newspapers and publisher of The Tennessean until May, when the newspaper division reduced the number of regional groups to three from four, eliminating Hudler's group in the process. Most recently, Hudler had been interim publisher at Florida's Pensacola News Journal.

Friends:

It is with mixed feelings that I share that our good friend and colleague, Carol Hudler is retiring from Gannett effective, Jan 31.

Carol found great success at every level of our industry. She served in advertising, marketing and senior leadership positions at the Kansas City Star; the Orange County Register; The Democrat & Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y.; the St. Paul Pioneer Press; The News-Press in Fort Myers, and the Tennessean.

Most recently, Carol has been my special assistant, overseeing strategic initiatives.

Carol is a dedicated, passionate professional who inspires colleagues to perform at their very best to serve readers, advertisers and communities. In 2003 Carol was name publisher of the year and received a chairman’s ring as a five time winner of a president’s ring.

Carol’s leadership skills were never more evident than when Hurricane Charley hit south west Florida in 2004 and a 100-year storm hit Nashville in 2010. In both cases Carol guided her team and community through a crisis and then led the rebuilding.

Carol has been a tremendous asset to our company. Please join me in wishing her all the best.

Bob

Digital badly misses year-end site relaunch goal

The Indianapolis Star is one of just nine sites relaunched.

In the latest blow to Gannett's make-or-break digital transformation, the company has only managed to install long-planned new website and app designs at nine of its 104 U.S. TV stations and newspapers -- a figure that falls far short of the most recent forecast, according to a review I completed today.

The new designs, which are meant to boost advertising revenue and readership, have been in the works since summer 2011, and were to be modeled after the look first adopted by USA Today more than a year ago. Among many changes, the USAT relaunch created a more tablet-like appearance that placed advertising more directly in front of readers.

As recently as July, Corporate said it expected the relaunch would be largely completed by year's end in the company's top 35 U.S. markets. Indeed, at one point, Corporate had said the rollout could be finished as early as January 2013.

But today, the first business day of the new year, the new look is in place at only two newspapers and seven stations, according to my review, which included 81 community dailies plus 23 stations. (I did not include any of the 20 stations from the just-closed takeover of Dallas TV company Belo.)

Since initially predicting installations in the top 35 markets, Corporate hasn't said anything publicly about possible changes to the timetable, so it's unclear why the new look has reached only nine sites so far.

Without any additional information from Corporate, it's also unclear whether the delay will have any immediate impact on revenue projections. The new design was to create more uniform advertising positions across Gannett, especially for prerolls that were to run before the many more videos now being produced by local sites in anticipation of the site redesigns.

The first to relaunch was WBIR in Knoxville, Tenn., in early September. The first newspaper to come on board was New York's Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, later that same month.

The unexplained delay comes amid a raft of other evidence that Gannett's digital growth is stumbling, according to regulatory documents, as competition across the Web and electronic networks only grows more intense.

Related: This spreadsheet shows the status of site and app relaunches at all 104 U.S. properties.

Rochester | All the news that's fine to print

Page One detail, Newseum.

As Gannett extends the Butterfly Project to 31 more newspapers in a bid to boost circulation and advertising revenue, one of the four dailies that's piloted the initiative has returned dozens of weekly pages of editorial content eliminated in recent years to pare costs.

Amid the initiative, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle is selling subscriptions to seven-day home delivery for $26.50 a month.

But check out all the fine print in the New York paper's deal:

Offers available to new subscribers only; subscriptions that include home delivery of the print edition are valid only in areas where home delivery is available. Not valid with any other offer. Prepayment required. As a subscriber you will have full access to our content through http://www.democratandchronicle.com, the e-Newspaper, mobile sites and applications, and home delivery of the print edition on the days you have selected. The Full Access subscription will continue and be billed monthly at the then regular rate, less any applicable credits, unless the Democrat and Chronicle is otherwise notified. The Thanksgiving Day edition is delivered with your subscription and will be charged the then regular Sunday newsstand price, which is reflected in the November payment. Applicable taxes may not be included in the rate. If we fail to home deliver a print edition, we will credit your account at the then regular credit attributed to providing home delivery of the print edition. If at any time you decide to cancel your subscription, you may contact customer service at 1-800-790-9565 and the full amount of any balance over $2.00 will be returned. You authorize the Democrat and Chronicle to automatically charge the credit card or bank account you indicate on the 15th of every month, unless the 15th falls on a weekend or holiday, and then the deduction is taken on the next business day. Any outstanding balances will be processed with the first EZ-Pay charge. Your first EZ-Pay charge will be prorated based on the start date. Democrat and Chronicle will be referenced on your credit card or bank statement for any payments made toward your subscription.

GCI extending Butterfly Project to 35 newspapers

As expected, the initiative to add dozens of editorial pages plus a local edition of USA Today will be expanded to another 31 dailies vs. the current four, according to a Gannett statement this morning. The rollout will take place during the first quarter. Corporate didn't identify the 31 titles.

Further down the road, GCI plans to extend the program to all of its 81 local newspaper markets, according to The New York Times.

Asked whether subscription prices would rise for readers getting the extra USAT content, Corporate's chief spokesman, Jeremy Gaines, told the NYT: “As we introduce enhanced products, consumers tell us they are willing to pay for the added value we’re bringing them.” (Translation: yes.)

The 35 papers that will be part of the Butterfly initiative have a combined circulation of more than 1.5 million on weekdays and more than 2.5 million on Sunday, according to USAT. That shows the 35 were chosen according to a metric other than circulation, such as annual revenue, because the highest-circulating 35 have combined volume of 2.4 million weekdays and 4.3 million Sundays.

This morning's announcement follows a relatively short test of the Butterfly Project since early October at four dailies in Fort Myers, Fla.; Indianapolis; Rochester, N.Y., and Appleton, Wisc. The expansion is designed to increase advertising and circulation revenue at the local level, plus ad sales and circulation volume at USAT.

Related: Corporate's press release highlighting this morning's UBS media conference.

USAT | Callaway brooks no resistance on Butterfly, telling his editors: 'stomp out any sort of whining about this or send the person to me and I will'

Here's an email from USA Today Editor-in-Chief David Callaway that doesn't end in his customary "cheers" sign-off.

Callaway

It seems newsroom staffers object to their longer, more labor-intensive enterprise stories being published only in the new USAT weekend editions now being inserted in four small Gannett dailies as part of the Butterfly Project test. That means some of their best work no longer appears in the regular national print edition with its 1.7 million print circulation. The combined weekend circulation for the four dailies is only around 600,000.

The kerfuffle was disclosed yesterday in Callaway's email to senior editors, where he endorsed an earlier note from Executive Editor David Colton to reporters and other newsroom staffers defending the Saturday and Sunday editions.

"Well said, David," Callaway wrote to his editing team, telling them: "Please stomp out any sort of whining about this or send the person to me and I will. All these great stories go on the Web and mobile as well, where the audience is five times the size. We are moving way too fast to have anyone on our staff who still doesn't understand this."

High-profile project
In his memo, Colton wrote: "These are closely-watched products, by the industry, by media critics and by our colleagues at USCP" -- a reference to the 81-title U.S. Community Publishing newspaper division.

He conceded "weekend content does soak up a lot of stories and packages, leaving Mondays and even later in the week hurting for print content."

But, he added, "treating Saturday and Sunday like major editions . . . will help us in the short run and for sure in the long run, when the Sunday USA Today may very well be treated as our platinum product."

Kramer

The Callaway-Colton emails spotlight the tension in the newsroom as Gannett's struggling flagship undergoes another turnaround meant to stem losses in advertising and circulation. Callaway came to USAT under Larry Kramer, who was hired as publisher in spring 2012. As outsiders, they've challenged many longtime employees -- some dating to the paper's 1982 launch -- to get with the digital times, and work more productively and cooperatively with other Gannett divisions.

Under previous publishers, USAT often operated quite apart from the rest of the company. It's housed alongside Corporate at the Crystal Palace headquarters in suburban Washington, complete with a gymnasium, cafeteria and other amenities that employees at the community dailies can only dream about. That's led to grumbling in the field that USAT employees are underworked and overly pampered -- a perception that will only be advanced by the current fuss over contributing to the Butterfly Project.

In that initiative started early this month, USAT is producing a daily standalone edition of national and foreign news for newspapers in Indianapolis; Fort Myers, Fla.; Appleton, Wisc., and Rochester, N.Y. The papers also added some local content as well, increasing page count with the USAT section by 50 to 70 pages a week.

Butterfly is a major bet on print newspapers when the industry has been losing advertisers and readers to the Internet and other digital products. Yet, even as Callaway and Colton touted the value of the new print editions, the paper today once more claimed it is the nation's top-circulating newspaper by including free tablet and smartphone app users.

For USAT, Butterfly gives the paper a weekend presence for the first time in its 31-year-history, creating another vehicle for ad sales and potentially adding millions of weekend and weekday circulation should the project be extended to other Gannett titles.

For the community papers, the USAT section is meant to add bulk and a well-known brand name after years of cutbacks in news have driven away readers and advertisers.

Butterfly already a 'go'?
Colton's note for the first time suggests the USAT Butterfly Project edition is likely to be added to yet more community dailies between December and March. Readers have told me earlier that about three dozen of the biggest 81 may get the USAT section if the test is successful.

Colton wrote: "Editors and publishers from 30+ Gannett sites will be here this Monday/Tuesday to discuss possible expansion of the Butterfly project. Having strong work to show them from this weekend’s editions will be a great look-what-you’ll-be-getting 'sell.'"

Combined, those more than 30 sites have Sunday circulation of 3.5 million -- underscoring Colton's prediction that Sunday's USAT could become the paper's "platinum product." Weekdays, those sites report a combined print circulation of 2.3 million.

Indeed, in a memo today, Kramer said USAT plans to count the new Butterfly editions in its next circulation report in the spring.

USA Today will count Butterfly edition circulation; move comes as it once more claims No. 1 circ rank

With print circulation tumbling again, USA Today Publisher Larry Kramer confirmed in a memo today that the struggling paper plans to include in its future circulation reports the new daily section inserted in four community dailies in the Butterfly Project trial that began this month.

USAT's honor box

That would add 360,000 in print weekday circulation and 579,000 on Sundays, for the first time giving the 31-year-old paper weekend circulation data to pitch to advertisers.

Until today, the paper had not said publicly whether it would include the standalone news section published at those papers in Indianapolis; Fort Myers, Fla.; Appleton, Wisc., and Rochester, N.Y.

The decision means USAT could expand circulation even more if the Butterfly Project is extended to perhaps three dozen of the largest 81 community dailies. They have a combined print circulation of 2.3 million on weekdays and more than 3.5 million Sundays. Corporate hasn't said how long the Butterfly test will be run.

Kramer's memo came as the paper disclosed it is once more claiming the No. 1 spot in newspaper circulation by counting free tablet and mobile phone use data on top of print edition sales. In doing so, the paper would overtake the current leader, The Wall Street Journal, and the second-ranked New York Times.

Muddying circulation waters
But the move makes it even harder to do an apples-to-apples comparison among papers, because the tablet and mobile phone users aren't paying readers. The WSJ and NYT figures are for their more valuable paid print and digital circulation.

Overall, this means circulation data will become even less meaningful to advertisers. USAT has long been dogged by critics who questioned the integrity of the paper's print circulation data because so much of it was to business travelers who got free copies given to them by hotels, airlines and other institutional buyers who bought in bulk at a steep discount.

With its new formula, USAT now says it has 2.9 million in circulation vs. 1.7 million in its March 31 report to the Alliance for Audited Media. That compares with 2.3 million for the WSJ and 1.9 million for the NYT, according to a report today in Capital New York.

However, USAT's new count masks another stunning loss of print circulation for the six months ended Sept. 30. It plunged 19% from a year ago, according to a Poynter Institute report today.

USAT's decision to count tablet and mobile data will help soften the blow of steep circulation losses the paper has forecast as a result of doubling its single-copy price to $2 on Sept. 30.

Digital age challenges
Kramer's memo arrives as the AAM (formerly the Audit Bureau of Circulations) released its Sept. 30 report to members this morning. Effective today, the AAM is no longer making public its top-25 circulation reports, however.

The industry has been wrestling with how to count circulation in the digital age, where papers have gained millions of readers who access websites for free. Historically, the industry had always counted paid circulation as most valuable. The shifting accounting has been a particular challenge for USAT, which doesn't charge readers for digital access to its website and digital apps -- unlike the WSJ and NYT.

AAM Executive Vice President Neal Lulofs told Poynter that the group's traditional method of counting circulation is no longer a meaningful metric for advertisers in today’s "complex multichannel, print/digital, paid/free, branded edition, bundled/paywalled, you-name-it environment."

The Butterfly Project, which has been in the works for more than a year, was seen as another way for USAT to regain traction in circulation and advertising while also giving an editorial boost to Gannett's community dailies. The standalone USAT section provides another platform to sell national advertising and adds dozens of pages of additional foreign and national news to the smaller community papers every week. The section is produced by USAT at its main office in McLean, Va.

USAT first lost the No. 1 spot in the September 2009 when the WSJ started included paid digital subscribers. USAT then fell to No. 3 when the NYT launched its paywall and also counted digital subscribers.

Kramer

Kramer's new tactic
Counting tablet and phone app usage is a new marketing strategy for the paper under Kramer, the paper's first publisher with a deep digital background. He founded the widely read financial news site MarketWatch before coming to USAT in May 2012. His mandate: to turn around the paper, which had been losing multimillion dollars in advertising amid steep circulation declines as the paper's bread-and-butter customers, business travelers and hotels, abandoned print newspapers.

Four years ago, USAT had downplayed its drop in the rankings by emphasizing that it remained the top selling print paper, partly as a result of its big single-copy sales.

"Single copy newsstand sales," the paper said in a press release, "reflect customers who actively seek out the newspaper each day and pay full newsstand price, which is widely considered the most valuable circulation by advertisers."

Louisville | Document in age-discrimination case claims multi-year plan to 'get rid of the old guard'

More than a year after one of Gannett's most highly paid former circulation executives charged in a lawsuit that his dismissal constituted age discrimination, both sides are now careening toward what could be an explosive trial in a Kentucky state court next month.

Huot

Mike Huot was 61 years old when he was laid off as The Courier-Journal's chief of circulation in September 2011 during a Gannett-wide restructuring that led to the creation of Gannett Publishing Services. He'd worked for Gannett 25 years, got paid nearly $300,000 a year in salary and bonuses, and held the paper's corporate membership at the exclusive Valhalla Golf Club. Both his wife and son worked at the paper, too.

Both sides agree on at least one point: In dismissing him, Corporate told Huot his job had been eliminated.

But in his lawsuit, Huot says age was the real issue, and that his job was not, in fact, eliminated -- just handed to a younger employee working for less. Indeed, after he was laid off, Corporate moved another company circulation executive, Tony Simmons, 49, to Louisville to take up Huot's duties. He was paid only $200,000 a year.

Whether Simmons assumed all or only some of those duties is in dispute, and goes to the heart of a case that's certain to draw widespread interest across Gannett. Employees in the trenches have filed a handful of age bias suits against the company after Corporate ordered thousands of layoffs over the past seven years. But Huot's case stands apart because he was a high-ranking officer privy to sensitive information Gannett would rather keep from the public realm.

Now, some of that's leaching out in his Jefferson Circuit Court case file. In a 25-page response to Gannett's request the suit be dismissed before trial, Huot and his attorney have alluded to company e-mail and performance evaluations, plus depositions and other documents they've uncovered. Collectively, they open a rare window on Gannett's ordinarily secretive internal operations.

So far, many of those documents are sealed from public view under an agreement between Huot and Gannett's attorneys. At trial next month, some of them could be made public, however.

Same, or different?
Huot says Simmons got everything but the job title -- his specific responsibilities, his office, and his direct reports, including Huot's administrative assistant. Like Huot, Simmons also was made a member of the Courier-Journal's operating committee.

Gannett rejects Huot's age discrimination charge. It says Simmons only got some of Huot's duties, according to the company's motion for dismissal. Where Huot reported to the C-J's publisher at the time, Arnie Garson, Simmons reported to a regional Gannett Publishing Services executive in Cincinnati. Also, Simmons was paid a lower salary: $168,000 vs. $223,000 for Huot. And he got a smaller bonus, $27,000 vs. Huot's $48,000.

Plus, Gannett says it considered Huot for a new job within the just-launched publishing subsidiary. The company eventually gave it to another employee, Bob Sutherland, who was two years older than Huot.

Huot hasn't produced a smoking gun yet: a Gannett document, for example, saying explicitly that Corporate targeted him because of age.

But he's found a witness who says his dismissal followed deliberations dating back several years about jettisoning "the old guard." The witness, Jerry Haywood, a former Gannett finance executive, attributed that phrase to Randi Austin, now a regional human resources executive in the U.S. community newspaper division, according to Huot's court filing.

Austin

"There were discussions as early as 2006 regarding the termination of members of the 'old guard' and specifically Mike Huot," the filing says, citing an affidavit signed by Haywood. "Randi Austin stated that Gannett intended to 'get rid of the old guard' and that she believed Gannett would terminate Mike Huot's employment."

The 2006 timeframe brought the start of huge layoffs across Gannett, many involving workers in their 50s and up, as the company raced to cut costs amid rapidly declining newspaper advertising sales. Companywide employment plunged to under 31,000 last year vs. nearly 50,000 in 2006.

At the time he was laid off, Huot was one of the company's most honored and highest paid employees. He'd won the President's Ring 14 times, and his combined salary and last bonus was $271,000.

'Go for more Chardonnay'
Huot claims Corporate wanted to get rid of him before the Gannett Publishing Services launch, but used the unit's formation and a series of related job cuts as cover to avoid the appearance of age discrimination. He cites an e-mail exchange between Austin and Michael Kane, president of the East Group, which included the Courier-Journal:

Kane

On Aug. 19, 2011, Kane wrote: "After yet more back-and-forth today . . . I think we now have everyone officially comfortable waiting until late September to deal with the Huot situation, one way or the other! Might kill me first, but that's a different problem. :-)"

Austin replied: "Just go for more Chardonnay. And make it the good stuff."

Corporate might have dodged Huot's lawsuit if it had just paid him more generous severance benefits. Instead, it gave him one week's pay for every year of service, a total of just 25 weeks -- the same benefit offered to the company's hoi polloi.

Simmons, meanwhile, has already moved on. Last month, he started a new Gannett Publishing Services job at Corporate's headquarters in McLean, Va.: director of distribution operations and technology. On the Courier-Journal's website, he's still listed in his old job, however.

The back and forth between Huot's attorneys at Goldberg & Simpson and Gannett's at Dinsmore & Shohl may be the usual saber rattling that occurs as two parties look for a way to end their dispute in private. Huot has asked for compensatory and punitive damages.

Judge Fred Cowan could grant Gannett's request for dismissal, which would end the case -- subject to any appeal. Or, Huot and the company could reach a settlement that might include a financial award.

For now, though, a trial is set for Nov. 19 in Jefferson Circuit Court in Louisville. If it gets to that point, we can expect far more interesting disclosures to become public.

Related: Here's a copy of Huot's original seven-page complaint. Plus: Speaking of courtroom dramas, watch this trailer for 1982's The Verdict, starring Paul Newman.

Butterfly Project formally launches tomorrow

That's when The Indianapolis Star and The Post-Crescent in Appleton, Wisc., start adding dozens of pages per week, including new daily, standalone USA Today national and foreign news sections. Some of the added pages will include more local news, although publishers haven't been specific about how much and what kind.

The two dailies will be joined by two more in Fort Myers, Fla., and Rochester, N.Y., on Monday as Corporate starts a pilot test of what's called the Butterfly Project. The initiative, under discussion at least since summer 2012, hopes to boost advertising sales, especially for national ads through the new USAT section.

Indy is adding 70 pages a week; Appleton, more than 48; Fort Myers, 70, and Rochester, about 60.

With tomorrow's debut, USAT will be publishing its first regularly scheduled print Sunday edition since the paper was launched in September 1982. Next weekend would bring the first Saturday edition.

If Butterfly is successful, it could be extended to about three dozen other U.S. community dailies from coast to coast with combined circulation exceeding 2.3 million weekdays and 3.5 million Sundays.

Depending on how it counts those abbreviated national editions, USAT could add millions in daily plus first-ever Saturday and Sunday circulation when it reports to the Alliance for Audited Media for the March 31 period. That would help the paper blunt losses after it doubled its single copy price to $2 last Monday.

Rochester | D&C just launched redesigned website

The Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, N.Y., today became the latest community news site to adopt a new look modeled after USA Today's, launched a year ago this month.

Corporate has said it expects to add the new template to newspaper and TV sites in its 35 biggest U.S. markets by the end of the year.

WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tenn., was first out of the gate early this month.

Butterfly | 80% of Fort Myers' new pages for USAT; Florida paper is third to outline role in a pilot test

That's according to a Page One note to readers this morning, where Publisher Mei-Mei Chan offered fresh details about how The News-Press will be revamped starting Oct. 7 as one of four test sites for the big new Butterfly Project across the community newspaper division.

Chan

Chan said the Florida paper will add 70 pages a week, including a daily eight-page standalone USA Today news section, a major focus of the Butterfly experiment.

Chan is the first publisher to reveal the size of the USAT section. That detail wasn't included in stories last week about the project's launch at two of the other test sites: The Indianapolis Star and the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle in New York.

As I post this, the fourth site, The Post-Crescent in Appleton, Wisc., still hasn't told readers about the changes in store even after the paper was first identified as a pilot site three days ago. (The paper is leading with a story and video about the appearance of a live chicken during a handgun control event downtown.) In a memo, staff was told the paper would gain more than 48 pages a week, including the USAT section.

Chan says the redesign will make room "for more coverage about local, regional and statewide issues."

Details still missing
But she doesn't offer any details on the type of coverage, including subject matter. She also didn't say how the additional news would be produced after the paper reportedly laid off six staffers in the newsroom in August during another round of Gannett-wide newspaper layoffs that claimed more than 400 jobs.

Gannett papers have been using more reader-generated blogs, photos and videos to fill space as managers chopped away at journalism resources. While that's free, it doesn't come near the quality of professionally-produced government watchdog and other such reporting.

In Indianapolis, Rochester and at USAT, publishers were equally vague about the subject matter and source of any local content to be added. The Star said only that it would add more than 70 pages weekly, and the Democrat and Chronicle will add around 60.

With Appleton adding at least 48 a week, the four papers would be adding a combined 13,000 pages a year -- a lot of costly newsprint when Corporate has recently been cutting back. Newsprint vies with labor costs as the company's biggest operational expense. In the second quarter, CFO Victoria Harker told Wall Street analysts newsprint consumption fell 15%.

Harker and CEO Gracia Martore will likely face many questions when they release the third-quarter earnings report in about three weeks. What's the Butterfly business model? How much advertising, including especially national, will it generate?

And is there another, parallel double-digit subscription rate increase in the works? Will it be a tiered model, where prices for the same delivery frequency will be set higher or lower according to data on average Zip Code household income? (You're seeing that possibility mentioned here for the first time.)

Publisher Chan's note on the bottom of Page One this morning.

Fort Myers incubator
Readers seldom like abrupt change. In Fort Myers, very early reaction was limited to just three comments -- all unhappy.

Mike Myers, who didn't provide his residence, wrote in a comment on Chan's note: "You've learned to spell in recent months; I'll give you that. But your content is lacking. Let's see how you improve on that."

Ken Franklin of Cape Coral agreed: "Along with what Mike Myers said, you should hire a competent copy editor to deal with frequent typos, grammatical errors, and other gaffes. And more staff photographers so you don't have to run file photos with important stories."

Corporate hasn't said how it chose the four test sites, which represent markets in the Northeast, South and Midwest, but not western states such as California.

But Fort Myers was an incubator for an earlier Gannett initiative that tested using mobile journalists who reported with smartphones, video cameras and other contemporary tech tools seven years ago. The paper's editor, Kate Marymont, later was promoted to editorial director for the entire 81-title community newspaper division.

Whatever the selection process, Butterfly adds even more pressure on the publishers and staff at the four papers to prove why the initiative shouldn't proceed to a wider rollout. Corporate has been considering Butterfly since at least summer 2012.

If the tests are successful, the USAT section would be added to about three dozen of Gannett's other biggest papers, according to my readers. Those dailies have combined circulation of more than 2.3 million on weekdays and more than 3.5 million Sundays. In total, Gannett publishes 82 newspapers and owns 23 TV stations, making it one of the world's biggest news groups.

An historic project
Weekday circulation at Fort Myers is 66,385, and Sunday is 91,150, according to the March 31 AAM report. (Find your site's circulation.)

Butterfly would be one of the biggest new initiatives in Gannett's recent history. But it's a risky bet on print's future amid declining circulation and advertising.

For USAT, Butterfly could help Gannett's struggling flagship recover hundreds of thousands in circulation volume that's likely to be lost when it doubles the single-copy price to $2 on Sept. 30. The paper has forecast a 35% plunge in newsstand sales and the near total disappearance of vending machine sales after the price hike, according to an internal company document.

It's unclear whether USAT will try to count the new daily section as paid circulation in its AAM reports. Rochester Publisher Michael Kane hinted at the possibility in his column last week: "We will effectively publish a national newspaper inside the D&C."

Earlier: Here's the Butterfly Project at a glance.

Related: spreadsheet shows circulation of 81 U.S. community papers 2005-2012.

Butterfly | Here's the new project at a glance

Early next month, Gannett will launch a pilot test of the Butterfly Project, a major bet on the future of print newspapers. It's one of the company's biggest initiatives in recent history.

What
The company will add a combined 13,000 pages annually to four of its 81 U.S. community dailies in New York, Florida, Indiana and Wisconsin. Most of that will be in the form of a new, abbreviated standalone edition of USAT inserted in the papers.

If tests are successful, the project would be extended to about three dozen other dailies from coast to coast with combined daily circulation exceeding 2.3 million weekdays and 3.5 million Sundays. Corporate hasn't provided a test timetable.

Why
Butterfly could generate millions of dollars in new national advertising revenue. It may also stem large circulation volume losses forecast by USAT when the struggling paper doubles its single copy price to $2 on Sept. 30.

Where

• The Indianapolis Star. Circulation: 156,850 weekdays, and 286,115 Sundays. Adding more than 70 pages weekly.
• The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla.: 66,385 weekdays, and 91,150 Sundays. Additional 70 pages.
• The Post-Crescent in Appleton, Wisc.: 35,986 weekdays, and 52,055 Sundays. Adding more than 48 pages.
• The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle in New York: 101,885 weekdays, and 149,590 Sundays. About 60 more pages.

Related: spreadsheet shows circulation of 81 papers 2005-2012.

Fort Myers | It's a very s-l-o-w news night here

The top story on the homepage of The News-Press in Fort Myers is an advance -- an advance! -- for a chamber of commerce event tonight where Publisher Mei-Mei Chan will receive one of the group's annual Apex Awards for women.

With 342 employees, the paper is ranked 35th on a list of Lee County's 100 major employers.

The Florida paper's weekday circulation is 66,385, and Sunday is 91,150, according to the March 31 AAM report. (Circulation database lookup.)

Fort Myers is one of four papers to be redesigned early next month under the Butterfly Project test to include a new daily USA Today section of world and national news. The other dailies are in Appleton, Wisc., Indianapolis, and Rochester, N.Y.

Spoiler alert: Parsing those Butterfly communiqués

In  The Manchurian Candidate, Lansbury (left) also massaged text.

Yesterday's big news about the Butterfly Project reminds me of a pivotal scene in 1962's Manchurian Candidate, a Cold War political thriller about a plot to take over the White House.

Angela Lansbury plays Eleanor Iselin, a Communist agent married to a conservative U.S. senator set up to steal his party's presidential nomination with a speech carefully crafted from afar. "It's the most rousing speech I've ever read,'' she says. "It's been worked on here and in Russia for over eight years."

Now, bear with me as my critics howl. After all, this isn't the first time I've compared an examination of Corporate's communiqués to Kremlinology.

For the Butterfly Project, four such dispatches arrived yesterday via Indianapolis; Rochester, N.Y.; Louisville, Ky., and USA Today outside Washington. They all reported that Gannett is adding a whole lot of news to its community dailies.

But a closer reading reveals columns, a story and a memo that are long on promises, yet short on important details -- from how much news is being added, to whether it's serious or fluff. Moreover, some of the language employed sounds like everyone's working from scripted talking points from Corporate headquarters.

At its most basic, Gannett announced that in early October, it will start testing a redesign of four newspapers that will add a new daily section of national news produced by USAT. In addition to Indianapolis and Rochester, the others are in Fort Myers, Fla., and Appleton, Wisc.

If the Butterfly Project is successful, it would be extended to about three dozen of Gannett's other biggest community papers across the country, according to my readers. The idea is to improve the content of the company's dailies to stanch the growing losses of circulation and advertising revenue.

Butterfly would also shore up USAT's circulation volume as it faces the threat of staggering retail sales losses when the cover price is doubled to $2 on Sept. 30.

So, what, exactly, were we really told?

Indianapolis
The headline over yesterday's story said: "Indianapolis Star announces plan to boost local, national content in partnership with USA Today."

Crotchfelt

Publisher Karen Crotchfelt said the Star would add more than 70 pages to the paper per week, including the USAT section. That's pages of something, including hopefully lots of paid advertising. But it's not necessarily all news, and certainly not all local news, since it will include USAT's world, national, sports, business and entertainment news.

Star correspondent Tony Cook, stuck with a politically dicey story, also reported that a revamped Sunday business section will emphasize jobs, the workplace and the economy. "Daily local business coverage will be integrated into the front local section," he says.

Integrate is another red flag because it doesn't mean there will be more of it, or even the same amount now being published.

Indeed, one of the more candid remarks in the story was a quote from Editor Jeff Taylor, who told his paper: "We’re adding a whole lot more of the stuff that, frankly, has been disappearing from the paper over time. Now we have a chance to give that back to people."

Stuff, of course, isn't news.

Rochester
Publisher Michael Kane's note to readers was headlined: "Democrat and Chronicle content improvements change the game."

Kane

Like the Star, Kane wrote about a partnership with USAT that will add 60 or so pages a week to the paper, including more local news.

A reporter schooled in pinning down details would ask: how much more in inches, and exactly what kind? Will it be deeply reported watchdog news, or reader-generated blogs and videos that don't adhere to professional journalism standards?

Kane assigned this important story to himself, however, so those questions don't get asked or answered.

Kane also mentions that the paper has "committed to even more watchdog and investigative work."

Oy, vey. If I had a nickel for every time a Gannett publisher has said that, I'd be a very rich man. (Kane's pledge is all the more curious after his paper laid off its political reporter in August while she was covering President Obama's visit to the area.)

Finally, it's worth pointing out that Kane stoked speculation that USAT could try to count the new section as paid circulation to the industry's Alliance for Audited Media next year. Tellingly, he wrote: "We will effectively publish a national newspaper inside the D&C."

Louisville
The Courier-Journal isn't one of the four dailies getting the Butterfly treatment. But Publisher Wesley Jackson nonetheless weighed in with a note to readers of his own about similar new changes. The headline: "Amid The Courier-Journal's evolution, dedication is the same."

Jackson

In a way, Jackson comes closest to the unvarnished truth among yesterday's announcements. Clocking in at about 800 words, his note can be boiled down to this: Content is getting moved around in print and online.

For example, he says: "We’re combining news sections in print and moving local news up front." Why is this a good thing for readers? Is it like "integrating" in Indianapolis?

Presentation will be more "robust." There will be more "voices" in the online editorial section. (Random op-ed rants from readers? Embarrassing letters to the editor like this? He doesn't say.)

Several things seem guaranteed. There will be more entertainment news, and health and fitness will be "sporting a fresh new look."

Sunday's features will focus on style and travel, he says: "Readers will be able to pair their interest in the hottest retail buys and style makeovers, with the popular Sunday coupons and store inserts." Sounds like advertorial to me, but Jackson doesn't offer enough specifics to know for sure.

"Overall," Jackson wrote, "our aim is to give print readers more of the in-depth, community-focused news, features and sports content they consistently tell us they want and that no other news provider in this region can match."

Today's C-J detail, Newseum

Again, how much more, in inches or some other very specific yardstick? Also, it's worth noting, content that no other provider can match may be news so weak, they don't want to even try.

Finally and unfortunately, Jackson says something that simply isn't true: "Our emphasis on public service has never wavered, and it never will."

Traditional public service journalism is expensive investigative work that forms the core of government watch dogging.

When I worked at the C-J in 1996-2000, I was on an investigative team of four full-time reporters and a full-time editor. That was in addition to at least one full-time investigative reporter on the Metro desk.

As well, the paper had a statewide network of news bureaus, including one at Hazard, Ky., in a part of the state with a particular history of government corruption, environmental and workplace dangers by powerful coal mine operators, and years of deep poverty.

Yet, most if not all of those resources were eliminated in multiple rounds of cost-cutting over the past decade. This is not wavering?

USA Today
My esteemed colleague (to use an honorific popular elsewhere in Washington) Publisher Larry Kramer sent staff a memo of his own about the key Butterfly role of Gannett's struggling flagship.

Kramer

From Corporate's Crystal Palace in a suburban office park outside D.C., he wrote of Butterfly:

"By partnering with our local markets, it helps us expand our circulation and allows our local partners to focus more on the regional coverage that their readers want."

The word partner appears three other times in his memo.

I've been noodling over why that word keeps coming up. My best guess is that it sounds full of bonhomie, as though Butterfly is something everyone happily and enthusiastically agreed to -- rather than a cost-cutting drive crammed down the chain from Corporate HQ.

Readers at the community level already suspect a multinational conglomerate is controlling their news from afar. A partnership sounds entirely different.

Cost-cutting, after all, is the name of the game here. For decades, Gannett has been trimming the space it devotes to news as it tried to satisfy Wall Street’s insatiable appetite for high profits quarter after quarter. And that was mostly during good economic times.

Dialing for dollars
It seems highly unlikely Corporate would only now reverse course, and provide a net increase of newshole when the industry is still reeling from a record contraction of circulation and ad revenue.

Martore

In about three weeks, CEO Gracia Martore will brief Wall Street during the quarterly earnings conference call. Stock analysts are already forecasting declines in revenue and earnings during the current quarter, which ends about Sept. 30. Indeed, their revenue outlook is even more bleak for the fourth quarter.

Broadcasting’s sales will be down from a year ago because the 23 TV stations don’t have last year's Olympics and political advertising to bolster results. The long-suffering newspaper division has now cycled through a big subscription price increase disguised as a paywall.

Digital Segment revenue from employment site CareerBuilder is threatening to flatline because of the weak job market. And the $1.5 billion deal for TV company Belo, assuming it's consummated by year's end, won't produce results until 2014 at the earliest.

For several quarters, Martore has warned Wall Street new investments in sales and technology will produce uneven financials. “Our transformation plan,” she said in July during the second-quarter call, “is a complex and multifaceted process, and we do not expect linear growth each quarter.”

Pension funds and other big investors controlling Gannett want to hear revenue is still growing and the company's famously disciplined spending remains locked down.

But they don’t want to hear about a Butterfly Project that will do the reverse. That’s because bottomline-obsessed shareholders hate six words more than most any other:

"We are investing for the future."

Related: Watch the trailer for The Manchurian Candidate.

Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot.com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green rail, upper right.

Butterfly | Welcome to Corporate's talking points

"We will add more local news and, in partnership with USA Today, we will add more national, sports and lifestyle news."

-- Publisher Michael Kane, in a note this afternoon to Rochester Democrat and Chronicle readers, announcing the New York paper will join The Indianapolis Star and other sites in testing the addition of a separate daily news section from USAT. (Emphasis added.)

"That section will be produced through a first-of-its-kind partnership with USA Today."

-- The Star, in its own story this morning about the addition of the section starting Oct. 6.


Indeed, in a memo to USAT employees this afternoon, Publisher Larry Kramer uses the word partner no less than five times to describe the new arrangement.

Earlier: Star confirms launch of Butterfly Project. Plus: USAT forecasts 35% dive in newsstand sales with doubling of cover price to $2.

Bulletin: Indy Star confirms launch of 'Butterfly'; project could add new daily USA Today section to dozens of other Gannett community newspapers

In a story published just minutes ago, The Indianapolis Star has confirmed Gannett is testing the roll out of a new USA Today section at a handful of community newspapers that for the first time could give the national daily a print weekend presence across the nation.

Today's USAT detail, Newseum

The Star story is the first public acknowledgement of a plan -- dubbed the Butterfly Project -- that's been in the works since at least summer 2012. The story follows my post about the project two days ago.

The project, if successful, would be one of the biggest new initiatives in Gannett's recent history. Still, it's a risky bet on print's future amid declining circulation and advertising, even as the century-old company battles to become a digital powerhouse. Moreover, it's a direct challenge to USAT's two biggest national competitors: The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Corporate's chief spokesman, Jeremy Gaines, told the Star: "We're always innovating and looking for new ways to engage our consumers. With more than 100 local media organizations nationwide, we’re well positioned to pilot new concepts such as this one."

The new daily section will launch in the Star Oct. 6. The paper said it would be piloted in a "few" other markets; it didn't give a timetable for those tests. I've been told the number of test sites would be five or six, including one in Wisconsin.

[Updated at 6:42 p.m. ET.] The section will be tested at four sites, USAT Publisher Larry Kramer told employees in a memo today. The other three are The Post-Crescent in Appleton, Wisc.; New York's Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, and The News Press in Fort Myers, Fla.

New Star pages: 70 a week
The USAT content will include world, national, and business news and features. The Star didn't say how big the section will be. Readers have told me it could number up to six pages daily, with more on Sundays.

Crotchfelt

Equally important, the section will be accompanied by a big increase in the Star's local news, focused on the suburbs, the Star says. In total, 70 pages will be added to the paper each week with the USAT section. "Our mission is local," Publisher Karen Crotchfelt told the paper. "Local leads, and it always will."

If the Butterfly Project tests are successful, the USAT section would be added to about three dozen of Gannett's other biggest papers, according to my readers. Those papers have combined circulation of more than 2.3 million on weekdays and more than 3.5 million Sundays. In total, Gannett publishes 82 newspapers and owns 23 TV stations, making it one of the world's biggest news groups.

They are in some of the nation's most populous states: New York, California, Ohio and Florida. The papers include The Arizona Republic in Phoenix (300,000 weekdays); Asbury Park Press in New Jersey (100,000) and the Pensacola News Journal in Florida (37,000). The Indianapolis Star's weekday circulation is about 155,000.

Of considerable interest to USAT's national rivals is whether the paper will try counting the new daily section as paid circulation when it submits figures to the industry's Alliance for Audited Media, formerly known as the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

At the Star, correspondent Tony Cook writes, "the investment in the print edition represents a divergence from recent trends in the industry. Many publishers have made significant cuts to their printed product in order to invest in their digital products."

Boost for USAT
For USAT, Butterfly could help Gannett's struggling flagship recover hundreds of thousands in circulation volume that's likely to be lost when it doubles the single-copy price to $2 on Sept. 30. The paper has forecast a 35% plunge in newsstand sales and the near total disappearance of vending machine sales after the price hike, according to an internal company document I obtained this week.

Today's Star detail, Newseum

USAT's circulation sank 8% to 1.7 million during the most recent reporting period, ended March 31. At the same time, its two national competitors surged ahead. The Wall Street Journal jumped 12% to 2.4 million, and The New York Times soared 18% to 1.9 million. Those figures include digital subscriptions; USAT doesn't charge for online access.

A fully extended Butterfly also could give USAT an even bigger national footprint to compete with the WSJ and NYT. Since it was started in September 1982, USAT has only published on weekdays. The WSJ now publishes every day but Sunday. The NYT publishes everyday, and has transformed itself into a truly national broadsheet over the past two decades, elbowing its way onto USAT's turf.

The new single-copy pricing at USAT is part of a broader strategy at Gannett's other 81 dailies favoring revenue over volume. Last year, after raising single-copy prices weekdays and Sundays, then boosting subscription rates, Gannett said circulation revenue companywide rose $53 million, or 5% -- the first such annual increase since 2006.

Ad strategy unknown
USAT has been losing circulation since 2008, when the paper gave up its lead as the nation's top-circulating daily to The Wall Street Journal. That came after major bulk buyers, hotels, stopped providing free copies to their guests as the paper's most important business traveling readers switched to smartphones and tablets.

Murcko

The Star story doesn't say what kind of advertising will be sold in the USAT section. But it's logical the section would carry national advertising sold by Corporate's team led by national sales chief Mary Murcko.

The addition of local news in the Star -- and the possibility the same could happen at other Gannett dailies with a full Butterfly roll out -- comes after a published report this summer saying the community papers were in line for another round of subscription price increases.

In July, Des Moines TV station KCCI said The Des Moines Register had started notifying 80,000 subscribers of a rate hike as high as 40%. The paper's marketing chief, Kurt Allen, told the station the increase is a "Corporate initiative, across all Gannett properties."

A rate hike carrot?
Restoring local news reduced during cost-cutting since 2008 could be used to sell readers on any subscription increases.

Whatever Butterfly's timetable, Gannett Digital is set to launch redesigned websites and mobile applications at 35 community news sites by the end of the year. The new look closely mirrors the radical redesign USAT adopted a year ago this month.

Butterfly comes at an already busy time for Corporate. Gannett is completing the purchase of TV company Belo by year's end. The deal, for $1.5 billion in cash and assumption of $715 million in debt, would nearly double the number of stations in the Broadcasting division.

Gannett's shares surged with the Belo deal's announcement in June. Early this afternoon, GCI was down 30 cents, or 1.2%, to $25.53. Markets overall were flat.

Related: spreadsheet shows circulation of 81 U.S. community papers 2005-2012.

As Lafayette, La., gets a fourth publisher in just six years, can the parachuting Terzotis really respond?

Even by Gannett standards, today's announcement about a new publisher for two Louisiana newspapers really sticks out.

Terzotis

Corporate named Judi Terzotis chief executive for both The Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, La., and the Daily World in nearby Opelousas. Terzotis will also continue as publisher of the troubled Times in Shreveport, La., as well as president of the overall five-paper Gannett Louisiana group -- jobs she got just four months ago.

And as if that wasn't enough, Corporate's press release says she'll continue to "oversee" the Fort Collins Coloraodan, where she was publisher before moving to Shreveport in May.

(At Fort Collins, Terzotis was replaced by business development director Kathy Jack-Romero. Reading between the lines, perhaps Corporate thinks Jack-Romero needs more time getting up to speed. In that case, Terzotis' role there may be short.)

In Shreveport in a story about her newest jobs, The Times was vague about where, exactly, Terzotis will live, saying only: "Terzotis will maintain offices in Lafayette and Shreveport and serve on both editorial boards. She also continues to oversee operations at the Fort Collins Coloradoan."

'A responsive team'
To be sure, Gannett has plenty of publishers who cover more than one site -- in some cases, dozens across multiple states. Just look at the publishers in Phoenix, Nashville, and Rochester, N.Y., who additionally run the three big regional newspaper groups that together encompass all 81 U.S. community dailies.

But in Terzotis' case, a quote attributed to her in today's press release must have left more than a few residents puzzled in Lafayette and Opelousas. "These communities," Terzotis says, "deserve a responsive team of people who can reflect the unique nature of south Louisiana."

Across Gannett markets, locals expect publishers to ride the rubber chicken circuit of Rotary lunches, car dealer promotions and chamber of commerce banquets. Nowhere is that more true than in small southern communities, where residents' legendary charm is leavened by wariness of executives parachuting in from multinational conglomerates based near Washington. I know, having spent six years working in Arkansas before and after Gannett bought the now-defunct Arkansas Gazette.

Lafayette and Opelousas residents pondering the notion of responsiveness will note Shreveport is about 200 miles north of their communities. And Fort Collins is fully 1,100 miles north of Shreveport. They'll note as well Terzotis is their fourth publisher in six years. (And that doesn't even count a fifth publisher who pulled out only a week after Corporate gave him the job. Nor does it include interim publisher David Petty.)

Publishers-a-go-go
Terzotis replaces Karen Lincoln, who was publisher at Lafayette and Opelousas for barely 17 months starting in March 2012. Lincoln, in turn replaced Ali Zoibi, who held the jobs only 14 months starting in December 2010.

Hurst

And Zoibi had replaced Leslie Hurst, after she was promoted in 2010 to publisher of The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Miss.

Hurst, who ran the two south Louisiana dailies for three years, also knows quite a bit about parachuting from one Gannett community to another. Including Jackson, she's been publisher of seven Gannett papers over the past 17 years.

USA Today forecasts big plunge in retail sales with doubling of cover price, company documents say

As its restructuring enters a second year, USA Today is bracing for a 35% drop in newsstand sales when it doubles the single-copy price to $2 on Sept. 30, according to internal company documents.

What's more, already-low vending machine sales could tank entirely, the documents say, leading the paper to remove most if not all the iconic TV-shaped honor boxes installed on sidewalks with the paper's launch 31 years ago.

I received the documents and related information from Gannett Blog readers over the past week.

1982's iconic rack

Any more circulation losses would follow steep declines since 2008 that cost Gannett's marquee brand 600,000 in daily sales -- and with that, its status as the nation's top-selling paper. Further losses also could force USAT to cut advertising rates to reflect a smaller circulation footprint. To be sure, some of the lost ad revenue would be recovered when the cover price rises to $2 from $1 in two weeks. Plus, a parallel initiative called the Butterfly Project may help claw back circulation.

USAT's circulation sank 8% to 1.7 million during the most recent reporting period, ended March 31. At the same time, its two national competitors advanced. The Wall Street Journal jumped 12% to 2.4 million, and The New York Times soared 18% to 1.9 million. Those figures include digital subscriptions; USAT doesn't charge for online access.

The big price hike and other changes come as the paper undergoes a major restructuring that began after Larry Kramer was named publisher in spring 2012. Kramer, founder of the MarketWatch financial news site, is trying to turn the paper around as its bread-and-butter audience, business travelers, shuns print for tablets and smartphones. Kramer's work included overseeing an extensive redesign, begun well before he arrived, of the print edition and the website a year ago this week.

USAT's new pricing is part of a broader strategy at Gannett's other 81 U.S. dailies favoring revenue over volume. Last year, after raising single-copy prices weekdays and Sundays, then boosting subscription rates, Gannett said circulation revenue companywide rose $53 million, or 5% -- the first such annual increase since 2006.

But daily volume fell 8% to an average three million copies, while Sunday declined 3% to five million.

Affluent readers walk
Much of USAT's circulation losses over the past five years came after some of its biggest buyers -- hotels -- stopped providing copies to guests, many of whom were leaving papers untouched outside their hotel room doors. The paper has swung back with a digital news portal sold to 3,000 Hilton hotels, and is talking to other hotel owners about a similar deal.

Kramer

Its unclear how much of USAT's current 1.7 million in circulation will be affected by the price hike, so I can't provide any estimates of aggregate volume losses. Although the increase will hit subscribers, it doesn't apply to hotels, restaurants, airlines and other bulk buyers, according to the documents. Those accounts have historically made up a big part of circulation, and gave the paper a nearly ubiquitous presence among affluent business travelers.

Last year, 76% of USAT's net paid circulation was from single-copy sales at newsstands, vending machines or provided to hotel guests. The rest was home and office delivery, mail, educational and other sales, according to Gannett's annual report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Any circulation and ad losses from the new single-copy price may be mitigated by another Gannett print paper initiative, the Butterfly Project, started more than a year ago. The company plans a pilot test starting early next month, according to readers.

About Butterfly
In the test, USAT will produce a multi-page section of news plus advertising that would be inserted in around a half dozen of the company's U.S. community newspapers, according to several of my readers. Subjects likely would include USAT staples: world, national, business, sports and entertainment. Corporate hasn't officially announced the project, although CEO Gracia Martore dropped hints during the quarterly earnings conference call with analysts in late July.

If the Butterfly test succeeds, the special section -- perhaps numbering as many as six pages -- would then be included with about three dozen of Gannett's biggest community papers seven days a week. Those dailies are published from coast to coast, including New York, Florida, Arizona and California.

Many questions remain unanswered, including especially whether USAT will try to count the section as paid circulation when it submits figures to the industry's Alliance for Audited Media, formerly known as the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Evan Ray, president of Gannett's printing and distribution subsidiary Gannett Publishing Services, is a member of AAM's 38-seat board of directors.

The combined circulation of Gannett's top three dozen dailies is about 2.3 million on weekdays. (I'm not including the Detroit Free Press, which delivers to homes only three days a week, and is sold at retail in limited locations.) On Sunday, total circulation of those 36 papers is about 3.5 million. (Spreadsheet shows circulation by title with losses 2005-2012.)

Those include Gannett's biggest: The Arizona Republic in Phoenix, which sells around 300,000 weekdays, and 540,000 Sundays. Also, The Indianapolis Star, 156,000 weekdays and 290,000 Sundays. Other markets are Louisville, Ky.; Nashville; Des Moines; Rochester, N.Y., plus smaller ones in four Florida cities.

USAT didn't respond to my e-mailed request for comment. Last week, spokeswoman Heidi Zimmerman confirmed the cover price hike after it was reported here.

First weekend editions
A seven-day publication would for the first time give USAT a dedicated print presence on weekends, making it more competitive for advertising with the NYT, which publishes seven days, and the WSJ, which publishes every day but Sunday.

Since it was founded in September 1982, USAT has only published weekdays, largely following the work lives of its core on-the-road business readers.

To be sure, the community dailies have been using USAT stories and artwork virtually since the paper's launch. In more recent years, that came in a single national news page formatted in USAT's typeface and published by most if not all the dailies in lieu of what had been prepared at the community level. Butterfly would extend that far more.

The new section would be produced by USAT editors at the paper's main office at McLean, Va., in suburban Washington.

Other questions

• Would USAT's national edition also lose circulation in cities where the special section is included in local newspapers? That would surely be part of the calculus at Corporate's headquarters when evaluating the Butterfly Project tests.
• Will advertising in the USAT section be limited to national, or will it also include local advertisers?
• How would the section be inserted in papers that don't print in conventional broadsheet formats, including in Cincinnati; Shreveport, La., Lafayette, Ind., and Burlington, Vt.?

The Butterfly project has been in the works at least since summer 2012. It's unclear how long the pilot test will last before a final decision is made on whether to extend it. Martore could give a progress report to Wall Street in mid-October when Corporate releases third-quarter financial results.

Community newspaper publishers were briefed on the project in April. And editors of newspapers that ultimately could carry the section were given details last month.

USAT last raised its cover price to $1 from 75 cents in fall 2008, just as the Great Recession was deepening.