For an example of what will happen when newspapers don’t listen to their readers, just look at the latest dismal Sunday circulation numbers released today. Here’s how E&P reported it:

While the estimated decline 2.8% for daily circulation for all reporting papers may seem negligible, consider that in years past that decrease averaged around 1%. Sunday, considered the industry's bread-and-butter, showed even steeper losses, with a decline of about 3.4%.

A lot of problems contribute to falling circulation these days, and if you watch this blog regularly we’ve discussed a few of them. But one thing about Sunday is striking.

As Sunday circulation losses grow steeper and steeper, Sunday newspapers around the country get thicker and thicker. That’s our response. And it’s a bad one.

Instead, listen to your readership studies, which show that younger readers find these MONSTER newspapers hard to use.

Newspaper execs are taught to infuse their product with mass appeal. And on Sundays, they just go hog wild. To them, mass appeal means sending everything they’ve got.

Focus on sending readers less of what they don’t want. That would make our Sunday morning a better experience. I’m lucky if I can read a fifth of the New York Times that crashes onto my driveway each Sunday. How is that supposed to make me feel?

That’s an honest question. Because those same readership studies predict I will read the newspaper when it makes me feel smarter. If I can’t possibly read the whole thing, how’s that supposed to make me feel?

Pretty dumb.

And I’m not paying anyone to make me feel dumb.

Obviously, I’ve presented a paradox. How can a paper appeal to more people while also delivering a thinner, more selective product? Now is the time stop talking about the answer to this problem and try it. There’s only one answer, and we all know it.

Tomorrow’s entry: Zoning by interest