Death of a Newspaper? Suicide or Murder

Here in Chicago, as in much of the rest of the country, we are witnessing the death of newspapers. However, at least in Chicago, this is as much of a suicide as a murder. In the past few years the Tribunue has taken every possible step to "cheapen" the quality of the paper in order to maximize the revenue. And then they wonder why the reader runs away.

Among these "design" moves:

A reduction in page size with a related reduction in type face. I realize that my eyes are getting older and do no see as well as they used to, but the font reductions in the tribune are both significant and noticeable. Even in things such as the Sunday Tribune Magazine, the size reduction has made the Sunday Crossword puzzle an exercise in eye-strain. Yes, perhaps they Tribune "saves money" by making the paper smaller. But they also lose subscribers.

The "elimination" of the TV grid, the essential elimination of the Weekly guide and the shifting of this guide to Saturday. The Tribune has eliminated the viewing grid from the Weekday paper. Okay. That's a useful feature of a paper which supports the idea of a basic subscription. Its a silly idea, it doesn't save that much paper, and frankly, decreases the utility of the paper. Its one of the few items which most readers can clearly use. (Its more useful than the Weather, for example, which is perhaps the most useless item in the paper....) Then they "merge" the Sunday Weekly TV guide with the paper, reduce the size to nearly un-readable, and eliminate any program descriptions. And NOW they claim that, to better serve the readership, they are going to move it to Saturday. Uh-huh. We all now the real reason. Its to try to promote the sale of the Saturday paper.

Among the moves of Substance

The Tribune has redesigned the paper to make it more "user friendly". What that means in Tribune speak is that they have shortened and further dumbed down the articles. This is the wrong way to go. Paper's will fail when going up against the internet for providing quick snippets of information. This is what the internet can do best. What Paper's can do is provide detailed coverage of the stories with in depth anaylsis. The Paper should recognize that many of its readers will not understand all of the stories that run. That' s fine. Paper's should challenge the inteligence of their readers.

Would I buy the Tribune at the current (or even a higher price)? Not the current Tribune. It insults me by underestimating my intelliegence and ignores providing any "service". What it does provide, it does so in a grudging fashion, and mostly seems to exist as a vehicle to deliver ads to my house.

To quote the Chicago Chicago White Sox Fans

Na na na na. Na na na na. Hey Hey Goodbye.


Na na na na. Na na na na. Hey Hey Goodbye.