Why does the N&R print redesign steal a good chunk of the Sunday opinion-section front for a calendar of local events?
It smells of consultants to me. And it does not smell good.
UPDATE: An alert reader writes:
Excellent call on the Ideas calendar.
The Life section runs a weekly front page list of what's hot and what's not in pop culture and entertainment. There's no attribution whatsoever. Is it locally produced or gleaned from the wires? Readers don't know. And for those of us who don't care for a regular diet of lists, boring as hell.
Basically, calendars are cheap space fillers. Dependable, too. Something will also be going on. That means less thought (and manpower) has to be put into the Ideas section. No consultant was necessary for this move. The N&R is expert at quick & dirty, reader-cheating filler.
Actually, the "list" page the reader refers to hasn't run in the Life section for more than 2 years. We run a chart of short reviews written by assistant features editor Mike Kernels on Thursdays now.
I was on the team that conceived the new Sunday paper, and the only consultants we used were News & Record subscribers and Sunday-only single copy buyers -- in a word, readers.
They all had lists of things they wanted, but one thing that was universal was more information on things to do in the community. The reason you see more calendar info in every section of the paper is that readers asked for it. And we listened to them.
Posted by: Susan Ladd | Oct 07, 2007 at 08:28 PM
The feature to which the readers refers ran as recently as this week -- the big grid on the front of the Life section telling us what video games and movies are coming out. It's abysmal.
Some of your readers are telling you something in this forum: using a good-sized chunk of the Ideas front for a calendar listing is a waste of space.
Perhaps other readers told you something else.
A bad idea is a bad idea, whether delivered by a focus group or a consultant or an editor.
There are a lot of things hurting the newspaper business these days. Staff cuts and bland, dumbed-down content are among the problems.
Posted by: Ed Cone | Oct 07, 2007 at 08:39 PM
Just to clarify, the feature you refer to is not simply a list of what's coming out -- it's capsule reviews. And while some readers may not like it, others do. We hear from them.
More calendar information may seem like a bad idea to you, but it was a constant request in our feedback from readers, many of whom only get the paper on Sunday.
Certainly, staff cuts are hurting newspapers -- including this one. But that was not the force behind these changes.
Posted by: Susan Ladd | Oct 07, 2007 at 09:51 PM
Is it possible that giving weight to the Sunday-only readers has skewed the poll results? Seems to me that those folks are more likely to be interested in non-news stuff--comics, Parade, coupons, real estate ads. And, um, lists of things to do other than spending a few hours savoring a good Sunday newspaper.
Posted by: Elizabeth Wheaton | Oct 08, 2007 at 07:47 AM