> 1. Encourage more people to monitor the "new" page, and

Even though I know what "new" does, I seem to interpret it as "create something new" instead of "view new submissions". Maybe I'm just an odd person but I think changing that to "newest" could make a difference if there are more people like me, especially for new users.

Good point. Really, looking at the list of the newest submissions should be exciting, but most people seem to see it as a chore.

I'd do A/B testing by changing it to "Hot Fresh Exciting New Links!" and see how many people now click on it.

Agreed, and once those are done, I think some exposure of new stories on the homepage (similar to Reddit) would also be helpful.