I don’t think I can write another word about the decline of The Hartford Courant. Any time the newspaper changes anything, whether for creative or economic endeavors, I find myself consoling decades-long subscribers. Last week, after an experiment left the TV grid out of the newspaper for one day, there I was asking readers if they really would abandon the newspaper over a grid.
The answers were mostly no, but the test – a search for ways to cut costs – gave readers the opportunity to list the takeaways that have been piling up over the years. We again reminisced about the expansive reporting staff that consistently fed readers’ appetite for local news. We talked about the good old days of a 40-page magazine, a “real” magazine with advertisements, a magazine that would lie around the house for weeks because it was easier to find and save from the recycling bin. We talked about how we missed some features that used to appear in the Sunday business section. Then we sighed and conceded that everything must change – even in the Land of Steady Habits.
But the effect of cost containments is not seen only in retired features. The whittling has also touched the soul of the newsroom. Watching longtime colleagues walk out the door because of missed budget projections is difficult. Journalists learn early on that money isn’t the reason to be in the business. They are suckered in by a calling to serve the public, to expose wrongs, to amplify the voices that many would rather ignore. Having to choose between 23 percent profit margins and reader services is a tough reality.
No one at The Courant doubts that the newspaper will thrive. Declining or not, the newspaper continues to produce impressive journalism. It has enhanced sections – Flavor, for example – and introduced new sections, such as At Home and Place.
In my job, it’s easy to forget that more than half a million people read The Courant every week for a reason. Yes, I’ve heard countless times from those who say they have no other choice, that The Courant is the only game in town, that they long for the days when The Hartford Times gave The Courant a run for its money. But Taylor Somerville, a member of The Courant’s Readers Advisory Panel, last week tapped into some of the things the newspaper can and does do well.
“I really enjoyed my Courant” last Sunday, Taylor wrote on the panel’s blog. “There were two main components that both worked well for me as a reader. The NE cover story ['Satan Rules The Street'] I thought was really great. Just from a literary stance, it was a compelling read. I might not agree with everything … but I couldn’t see that story presented in a better way. It was a powerful read.”
“Equally grabbing was the front-page picture and subsequent special section ['Pieces of Brian'] … I found it to be powerful, patriotic, and interesting. Overall I would say that [last Sunday] was a cathartic read, and that’s what I like. It gave me some things to mull over and it stuck with me the rest of the day.”
And that’s the challenge: finding how to be The Courant that readers want and need in spite of budget demands. It will take imagination and some fearlessness on the part of the staff – and readers. But there are no other options.
Doonesbury
Some readers were left wondering last week what was going on with Garry Trudeau’s comic strip. Because of a production error, the Doonesbury strip published on Nov. 1 was illegible. A couple of readers wondered if the newspaper was censoring Trudeau. They wanted a readable version of the Nov. 1 strip reprinted in the next day’s newspaper. The problem was that Trudeau had withdrawn the strips scheduled to run last week, including the one that appeared in The Courant on Nov. 1.
The strips focused on Supreme Court confirmation hearings for White House counsel Harriet Miers, but her announcement Oct. 27 that she would no longer pursue the nomination rendered the strips obsolete, according to Trudeau’s website. The strips that appeared in The Courant Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday were old strips. Trudeau did offer the Miers’ strips for his fans’ reading pleasure on his website: www.doonesbury.com.
