Wiley’s B.C. calendar probably has a date carved in stone: “Monday, Aug. 20″ — a date that Snuffy Smith can toast as well with an extra swig from his jug.
Both comic strips are returning to the daily lineup tomorrow after a brief hiatus. The strips will rejoin the Sunday comics on Sept. 9.
Their paths were paved with feedback from hundreds of readers who telephoned and e-mailed their thoughts about the redesign of the Star-Telegram and included requests to keep B.C. and Snuffy Smith. By Thursday evening, nearly 500 readers had contacted me. As many had contacted Executive Editor Jim Witt.
We want to thank everyone for contacting us and to apologize for not being able to personally respond to all of the calls and e-mails. Rest assured that your comments are noted.
Readers brought valuable thoughts for the Star-Telegram to consider in fine-tuning a redesign that was introduced Aug. 12 and has gained widespread acceptance as a welcome improvement.
Readers’ No. 1 concern, by far, was the type size used for the list of obituaries that’s published on Page 2A. Their No. 2 concern, by far, was the type size used for the numbers drawn in the Texas lottery. The type size in both features has been significantly increased for improved legibility.
Other refinements in the redesign are also under consideration. We know we can’t please everyone, but we want to please as many as possible.
So what was going on with B.C. and Snuffy Smith?
From time to time, newspapers test the readership of old and new material, sometimes in a survey and sometimes not. We owe our readers as much if we want to make sure that we’re providing the syndicated material that works for them. That means we need to be prepared to give great new talent a break just as Johnny Hart got a break in 1958 with B.C.
Several major U.S. dailies recently dropped B.C. after they decided that it had grown stale and tiresome. Meanwhile, many papers have been considering alternatives to Snuffy Smith, given dwindling readership and the death of the artist who had inherited the strip from its original creator.
We felt that our readership numbers for both comics merited a test. Likewise, we felt that the considerable success, nationally, of two fresh comic strips — Pickles and Red and Rover — merited a trial run. The introduction of a redesigned Star-Telegram provided the vehicle.
Reader response clearly indicates that North Texas readers treasure B.C. and Snuffy Smith.
Readers addressed other redesign-related issues as well. For example:
- What has happened to “Small Talk”? The feature that ran at the bottom right of Page 2A was squeezed out to make room in column 6 for Lotto Texas results, the official mailing statement and the list of obituaries in an enlarged type size.
- Why did Sports do away with “Today’s Ticket” on its second page? Information in “Today’s Ticket,” which includes the simulcasting schedule from Lone Star Park, has joined the Scoreboard page along with weekend TV and radio highlights.
- Looking at the U.S.-Mexico weather map, hasn’t Puerto Vallarta been located too far north?
Yes, ma’am. By about 250 miles.
The U.S.-Mexico weather map had the resort up there on the Gulf of California near Los Mochis in Sinaloa state rather than down there on the Pacific coast of Jalisco state, where it belongs.
It just goes to show that readers usually know what they’re talking about. That’s why the Star-Telegram listens to them.
