I braced myself for the worst for the worst when I opened the door to my office bright and early this morning and saw my old nemesis.
That would be the flashing red light on my phone that alerts me that I have voice-mail messages.
I girded myself, then glanced at the display. Eight messages. I was pretty sure they weren’t all there to wish me a happy Memorial Day.
Actually, I pretty much knew why they were there. After all, I can’t say I didn’t ask for it.
We unveiled our new sleeker design on Monday. I wrote about it in yesterday’s column.
I asked readers to let us know what they thought about the new look. They did not disappoint.
I was actually pleasantly surprised. And that goes for myself as well as the readers. I kind of like the new, smaller format. It’s very easy to hold, and I am thinking it could soon be taken to heart by commuters packed onto trolleys, buses and trains.
Most of the readers seemed to agree.
Here’s a sampling: “I like the new paper. Four pages of comics.”
That’s something that almost everyone I talked to noticed, that we added a comics page instead of simply eliminating strips and forcing them onto three pages.
One woman did lament what she perceived as a bit of a squeeze on her favorite part of the comics, the cryptogram.
“Very nice job with the new paper,” she started with a compliment before getting down to business. “Except for one thing. My cryptogram. It’s gotten smaller. Please make it bigger. I’m 80 years old,” she said.
Believe it or not, we have not shot it down. It might look a little smaller simply because it’s on a smaller page.
Several readers did take notice that we had a slight problem on Monday with our new baseball agate page. Yeah, you might say that. It was actually the wrong page. We downloaded and ran the agate page from the day before. Readers were not amused.
And, of course, not all readers are thrilled about the new format. And of course they were not shy about telling me exactly how they thought.
“Dear Phil.. .Let me add my name to the myriad of complaints you are sure to receive over the "new format" of the Times.
You are kidding, I hope. When an oldster like me has to use a magnifying glass to read this miniscule edition, then perhaps it's time to discontinue my daily delivery, and switch to a more comprehensive Philadelphia edition. And God forbid a very small ink blur would make the Times totally unreadable?
And- you did tell me recently that the sports results would start re-appearing in your paper. Hasn't happened yet, as you continue to print "results too late" for today's edition. Didn't use to be that way. Your attempts at improving the paper seem to be going in reverse. I think you should return all the way back to square one and start giving us the paper we enjoyed so much better .
Sincerely;
Bill
He was not alone.
"It's official - my iPad is bigger than your print edition."
" Mr. Heron: I like the length of the new Daily Times, it is about an inch shorter, easier to handle and read, similar to those old Life and Saturday Evening Post magazines. "
I'm flattered to be in such good company.
But even the compliments were not without caveats. One reader feared a sinister force lurking in the future.
"I will say I like the new, improvised version. Now there is always a motive behind anything that is done ,what is the Daily Times motive? Is it to cost more? Phil, I hope not.
There is of course one other thing that was "new" about the new look Daily Times. As part of our redesign, we have new logos to run with all our columns, along with all the banners and other graphics in the paper. With less space to deal with, we are trying to be a lean, mean fighting machine.
We got the mean part right, in at least one area. As I said we shot new photos to run with all of our local columnists. That would include mine, which appeared on Page Six.
Yes, I can admit it was one of the first things I turned to when I picked up the paper. Ouch! Let's just say I vaguely resemble that old guy in the photo.
Hey, you can't like everything about the new format, right?
It's not too late to weigh in or let us know your thoughts. We will take all such suggestions under consideration as we continue to tweak the new format.
Let me know what you think.
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