Text Messaging May Be Way to Reach Young Readers: Newspapers have been crying in their beer over the loss of young adult readers. So in an effort to grab that ever-elusive demographic, one newspaper decided to stop sobbing and go where the young and hip go. Last week, The Boston Phoenix rolled out a program with two lures sure to snag the under-30 set: chat, and the chance for romance.
Called txt2flirt, it's essentially a text-messaging application. The alternative weekly runs ads in sections like horoscopes, weather or lottery results, enticing readers to sign up for txt2flirt. A person then registers by phone or the Web by entering information like age, sex, zip code and desired content.
