Detroit Free Press comic changes
SDTaxMan
Sunday comics next week, 9/13:
Dropping six comics: Spiderman, F-Minus, Dinette Set, Mutts, Rose Is
Rose, The Family Tree
Also announcing to bring back Judge Parker to the weekday lineup on
9/14, with Argyle Sweater leaving, apparently.
J.D. Baldwin
In the previous article, SDTaxMan <azzarach...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dropping six comics: Spiderman, F-Minus, Dinette Set, Mutts, Rose Is
> Rose, The Family Tree
>
> Also announcing to bring back Judge Parker to the weekday lineup on
> 9/14, with Argyle Sweater leaving, apparently.
>
Who? Who told the Free Press that he "wanted" to see a whole bunch of
comics dropped? Name one person who wrote in to say that. Just one.
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone objects to any statement I make, I am
_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / bal...@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it.-T. Lehrer
***~~~~----------------------------------------------------------------------
SDTaxMan
wrote:
> In the previous article, SDTaxMan <azzaracharlie...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Dropping sixcomics: Spiderman, F-Minus, Dinette Set, Mutts, Rose Is
> > Rose, The Family Tree
>
> > Also announcing to bring backJudgeParkerto the weekday lineup on
> > 9/14, with Argyle Sweater leaving, apparently.
>
> > http:// [...] /You-told-us-what-features-you-wanted--and-we-listened
>
> --
> _+_ From the catapult of |If anyone objects to any statement I make, I am
> _|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
> ***~~~~----------------------------------------------------------------------
Good point, JD.
Free Press Managing Editor Julie Topping put out a survey mid August
for the Sunday comics. She wrote then that the Freep was going "have
to" cut up to six comics from the Sunday comics, as they were looking
to downsize from six pages to four. Why? Because of economics
(costs).
I certainly don't agree with it. I think the Free Press, like other
papers, are cutting their noses off, despite their face. Dumb.
Comics are a reason to keep getting the paper. In Detroit you can now
only get home delivery THREE days a week (Thursday, Friday and
Sunday).
The fact Detroit is going to have a four page Sunday comics section is
pathetic.
Joshua Kreitzer
wrote:
>
> > Dropping six comics: Spiderman, F-Minus, Dinette Set, Mutts, Rose Is
> > Rose, The Family Tree
>
> > Also announcing to bring back Judge Parker to the weekday lineup on
> > 9/14, with Argyle Sweater leaving, apparently.
>
> > http:// [...] /You-told-us-what-features-you-wanted--and-we-listened
>
> Who? Who told the Free Press that he "wanted" to see a whole bunch of
> comics dropped? Name one person who wrote in to say that. Just one.
Well, apparently the readers told the Free Press what comics they
wanted to keep, and Spider-Man, F-Minus, and the others being dropped
were not among those too frequently.
On the other hand, the same article states, "Crosswords are a
relatively new pastime in this country. U.S. newspapers started
running them in the 1930s." I am not sure how "started in the 1930s"
counts as "relatively new," particularly given that a 1930s start date
would make them older than a lot of familiar inventions and
institutions. Besides, according to Time magazine, the Detroit Free
Press itself was among many newspapers running crossword puzzles back
in 1925.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,719730,00.html
In other words, one would have to be about 90 years old to be able to
remember a time when U.S. newspapers didn't commonly have crossword
puzzles.
Joshua Kreitzer
grom...@hotmail.com
J.D. Baldwin
In the previous article, Joshua Kreitzer <grom...@hotmail.com> wrote,
quoting me:
> > Who? Who told the Free Press that he "wanted" to see a whole bunch
> > of comics dropped? Name one person who wrote in to say that. Just
> > one.
>
> Well, apparently the readers told the Free Press what comics they
> wanted to keep, and Spider-Man, F-Minus, and the others being dropped
> were not among those too frequently.
Yeah, I get that. I don't object to the dropping of the comics so
much as to the dishonest headline cloaking the decision in simple
responsiveness to consumer demands.
aemeijers
> In the previous article, Joshua Kreitzer <grom...@hotmail.com> wrote,
> quoting me:
>>> Who? Who told the Free Press that he "wanted" to see a whole bunch
>>> of comics dropped? Name one person who wrote in to say that. Just
>>> one.
>> Well, apparently the readers told the Free Press what comics they
>> wanted to keep, and Spider-Man, F-Minus, and the others being dropped
>> were not among those too frequently.
>
> Yeah, I get that. I don't object to the dropping of the comics so
> much as to the dishonest headline cloaking the decision in simple
> responsiveness to consumer demands.
Well, this consumer demands comics. Drop some of the puff pieces and
boring sports stuff to make a hole. I'm about this far from dropping the
Freep and/or the News from my daily routine. Snack bar at work quit
carrying anything but the McPaper, so the morning ritual of the last 20
years, reading a page of comics while my LAN-crippled computer boots up,
is now shot to hell. And the back-office company for the Detroit rags
has the outstate distribution so hosed up, you have to hunt to find the
papers at 1600 in the afternoon. Since they only resemble a real paper
on the 3 days a week they offer home delivery (the other days being the
size of the local Gannett paper), it becomes problematical if they are
worth my buck-fifty a day.
Wanna know why fewer and fewer people read the paper every year,
publishers? Just maybe it is because with each passing year, it looks
and acts less like a newspaper?
rant mode off
--
aem sends...
SDTaxMan
Agree, 110+++%
The Freep should've added comics. But, they view comics as a
"cost". And, some bean counter told the Publisher they need to cost
savings.
Instead of getting somewhere else (or not at all), they went in this
direction.
And, the fact they are insinuating they "got your feedback, so it's
okay to do this", is b.s.
J.D. Baldwin
In the previous article, aemeijers <aeme...@att.net> wrote:
> Wanna know why fewer and fewer people read the paper every year,
> publishers? Just maybe it is because with each passing year, it
> looks and acts less like a newspaper?
This situation is one of the reasons "self-fulfilling prophecy" is
such a clich�.
They "know" they are losing readers to the Internet. Of course,
everyone *has* the Internet, and has for some years. (Not absolutely
everyone, of course, but pretty well everyone who's ever going to get
it.) So there are two choices:
1. Fight the losing battle, cutting costs and making the product less
and less attractive in the process, pushing away more readers, and
forcing more cost-cutting, etc.; or
2. Sit down and think HARD about why people in this day and age might
still want to subscribe to a large chunk of paper they can hold in
their hands and read about news whose freshness was already off by
the time they went to bed the night before. Then play to those
strengths: in-depth analysis, really good state and local
reporting and FEATURES.
One of these choices ends inevitably in bankruptcy. The other still
might end that way ... but maybe not.
Dann
4828-9f88-4...@e8g2000yqo.googlegroups.com.
> On the other hand, the same article states, "Crosswords are a
> relatively new pastime in this country. U.S. newspapers started
> running them in the 1930s." I am not sure how "started in the 1930s"
> counts as "relatively new," particularly given that a 1930s start date
> would make them older than a lot of familiar inventions and
> institutions. Besides, according to Time magazine, the Detroit Free
> Press itself was among many newspapers running crossword puzzles back
> in 1925.
Someone in purchasing may not have gotten the memo. When I bought the
Freep on Saturday, it didn't have KenKen. Yet the article clearly
suggests that they are keeping KenKen.
I guess I'll buy it one more time just to know for sure....
--
Regards,
Dann
blogging at http://web.newsguy.com/dainbramage/blog.htm
Freedom works; each and every time it is tried.
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