Behind the story: USA Today's week-long report "Turning 62"

USA Today Personal Finance Editor Fred Monyak knew this year is when many baby boomers would turn 62 and their retirement could begin.
Realizing the importance of 2008 for boomers, he proposed to his reporters a week-long series to explore the impact on those early retirees.
The series, which was published this month and is called "Turning 62," focused on several key areas that would affect the retirees most deeply.
Now with the project completed, Monyak shares the details about why these stories warranted his reporters' focus.

Why did your staff believe this was a worthwhile project?
"We all felt that we owed the huge baby boom generation -- there are 79 million of them, the biggest generation in U.S. history -- a full-scale series that would provide financial guidance as they begin what will be the longest retirements ever."

What lessons did your staff learn from the project?
"I think we all concluded, given the extraordinary popularity of the series online, that we satisfied a hunger for information among our readers who are near or in retirement or who have relatives who are. The challenges of retirement have changed drastically in the past generation. Now, for example, retirees are less likely to receive monthly pension checks. Instead, they are more likely to receive lump-sum payouts that they have to personally manage. Today's retirees are also less likely to have company-provided retiree health insurance. The stakes are high, and many retirees feel overwhelmed by their greater financial burdens. We hope we helped make that task a little easier. I think we also learned that large-scale newspaper projects like this one, though enormously time-consuming and often frustrating in the weeks and months leading up to the final product, in the end pay off in a way that's worth the investment we put into them."

What type of response has your staff received from the project?
"We were, frankly, amazed at how popular the series proved among our readers online. All week, the series dominated page hits on usatoday.com and evoked hundreds of comments and vigorous debate. A huge number of our readers emailed the stories to friends and relatives. C-SPAN invited one of our reporters to be an in-studio guest last Sunday morning. The reporter delved into many of the issues raised by the questions here and answered viewers call-in questions for an hour."

To read the "Turning 62" series from USA Today click here.