Some like it; some feel left behind
My newspaper column
A week and a half into our new design and our readers have made two points clear.
First, generally speaking, you like the fresh look, the new features and the return of The New York Times columnists.
Second, speaking quite specifically, many of you don't like the loss of the extended stocks and mutual funds listings.
We’ve heard from hundreds of people and appreciated every call and note. Your suggestions were helpful. It's always risky to tinker with any of the traditional newspaper features. Readers get accustomed to them, and change for whatever reason doesn't sit well.
Our goals were to modernize our look, to provide more breadth and depth to our report, to give you meaningful information to understand the world around you better, and to produce journalism with impact and consequence.
In the eyes of many, we were successful.
"As a regular reader and subscriber, I am excited about the changes the News & Record is making," Kimmerly Milner wrote. "I like the diversity of the new columnists you’ve added. I particularly look forward to reading the 24.7 and Savor sections. The News & Record seems to be progressing from a 'small town' paper to one more conducive to the growing city Greensboro is."
Tim Maier of Archdale had to be persuaded, at first.
"With our last child out of the house and off to college, my final link to the collective consciousness vanished," he wrote. "Coupled with the hard truth that I am a blossoming curmudgeon, I realized the future of conversation around the ol' supper table was going to be grim. Not any more. My surprise and instant scowl when I first saw today's paper, gave way to a grudging respect and my eventual smile when I finally put the paper down. The N&R gets a nod of thanks for dragging me back from the brink of being a 'completely clueless old guy' before my time. Now just another full page of trendy comics and it would be perfect."
We're still tinkering to ensure that we fulfill the redesign goals, although a second page of comics isn't in the cards, unfortunately, Tim.
All the comments weren't so positive.
"It's written at a third-grade level with Attention Deficit people in mind and we're not all like that," said one caller who didn't leave her name.
We also heard from hundreds of readers upset about our abbreviated financial market listings. We dropped the fuller stocks and mutual funds listings and replaced them with market indices and about 150 selected stocks of local interest.
Our decision to move more of the listings online was based on two factors: space in the newspaper is limited, and many people use the Internet to get customized market information. We can use the money saved from the expenditure on the financial listings in ways that will provide you with more unique, meaningful content.
That didn't sit well with retiree Charles Atwell, who voiced the sentiment of many callers when he told me: "I don’t have a computer, and I don't want a computer. Now what do you expect me to do?"
I hope he will continue reading the paper. Many people who contacted us asked that we add stocks to our list. We listened and, as a result, we revised the local report. There are now about 150 stocks listed, including most of the stocks requested. We hope those will satisfy the daily craving to check whether a stock’s value has risen or fallen.
If you want to request we add a stock, please call 373-7070.
And if you have other suggestions for the newspaper, I’d love to hear them.
Comments (2)
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Hey, the "mix" looks awfully familiar to those of us who get the Post.
The rest, seen from the distance of the online slideshow, looks good.
Posted on May 1, 2006 6:00 PM
This is off topic, but I am very annoyed with your "video" for American Idol.
I clicked on it last time you claimed you had video only to get a lame AP "video" which consisted of a talking head "entertainment writer" and PHOTOS of the show that floated around and zoomed in and out.
That is hardly video.
So, I clicked today and AP's (and, I guess, your) version of "video" again was simply a person talking and still photos.
Well, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
I'll never click on another piece of "video" on your site again...
Posted on May 4, 2006 8:32 AM