Innumerable calls and e-mails from readers express annoyance with the multiple pieces of the A section appearing in
The Salt Lake Tribune of late. For instance, Friday’s edition had a three-piece A section: A-1 to A-8, A-9 to A-16 and
A-17 to A-24. The middle section (A-9 to 16) was a series of full-page Meier & Frank ads.
Readers find this configuration irritating and hard to handle.
The short explanation for why this happens is this: The “splits” are necessary to accommodate the color ads in that
section on the press.
That’s not good enough, many of you believe. Pawing through the sections to find stories or the rest of stories that have
been continued from the front page is breaking the routine of reading the paper — taking the fun out of it.
It also gives the impression to some readers that there are more advertisements in the newspaper than ever. Would that
this were so, for it would mean more space for news, too.
This is so annoying to some readers that they threaten to stop their subscriptions.
Let me digress with a small but favorite joke:
A mother and father became so distressed with their twin boys — one was an optimist and one was a pessimist — that
they took them to a world-class psychiatrist for treatment. After the doctor spoke to the boys, he separated them and put
each in a different room. The pessimist found himself in a room full of every toy or treat any child could ever want. The
optimist found himself in a room full of horse pucky.
After about an hour, the psychiatrist went to the room where the pessimist was and opened the door. The child was
sitting among all the toys crying. “What’s wrong?” the psychiatrist asked. “If I try to play with anything a big person will
come in here and take it away from me,” the child replied.
Disgusted, the doctor slammed the door and went across to the door of the room where he had stashed the optimist. As
he opened the door, the psychiatrist spied the kid diving in and out of the pucky. “What are you doing?” the psychiatrist
asked. “With all this stuff, there’s a pony in here someplace,” the child replied.
Here’s the pony.
Within the next week, a new way of planning the press run and more advance section printing will mean the A section
should be no more than two sections of 12 pages each — easier to handle and find the stories. The picture may improve
even more in about 18 months to two years when new presses should be able to accommodate more color ads without as
many splits or separate pieces of the A section.
Broken Bridge: Newspaper readers are creatures of habit — and this is, as the infamous Martha Stewart would say, a
good thing. This means they pick up their morning edition of The Salt Lake Tribune and they have at it. Some
subscribers attack the A section first, digesting the world, national and top local news. Then they may pick up Sports or
Utah or one of the myriad feature sections. Having their fix of daily news and features, they are ready for what the world
offers.
Now, on good days, the Trib gets it right. The sentences are complete, the words are spelled correctly, the reports are
lively and challenging.
On bad days, the Trib staff manages to do something to interfere with the readers’ habits and it gets nasty here at the
Reader Advocate’s desk. This week it is those pesky readers of the Bridge column on the comic pages. It seems twice in
the past week and three times in the past 10 days, the bridge hands did not match the bridge bidding and play narrative.
This may seem like a small thing to some readers who amuse themselves with the Wuzzles or the Crossword, but to
bridge players — their heads crammed with slams and doubles and redoubles — it is not. To avoid this problem in the
future, a staff member who actually has played bridge sometime in the past three decades is proof-reading the column.
Is This Scary? Last survey that I saw ranked journalists just above used car salespeople in the public’s eye, but still a
few of you might be interested in booking a Salt Lake Tribune staffer to speak to your civic, professional, school or
religious organization. Reporters and editors who cover everything from politics to schools, from sports to pop culture,
from business to how to get your news in the paper are available. Call me at 801-257-8782 to book one. In fact, take two
– they are free.
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The Reader Advocate’s phone number is 801-257-8782. Write to the Reader Advocate, The Salt Lake Tribune, P.O.
Box 867, Salt Lake City, Utah 84110. reader.advocate@sltrib.com
