What a difference an inch makes.
That’s what a Bucks County reader said, who called to say how much she liked the new, leaner look to The Inquirer.
A week ago today, the paper began using a new page size that is one inch narrower than before. We began by printing about 75,000 copies a day of the new-size paper on one press. It will take until early August to convert all nine presses to the new paper size.
On the first day of the changeover, the paper received about a dozen calls and e-mails from people who said they liked the feel of the narrower page. To them, the paper was easier to hold, fold and read.
Amid the compliments, we received a blizzard of phone calls from readers complaining about the shrunken daily crossword puzzle.
What a difference three-quarters of an inch makes, especially to older readers.
Luckily, the problem was easy to solve. David Milne, assistant managing editor/design, borrowed white space from between the rows of comics to take the puzzle back up a few notches. The lettering in Wonderword and Jumble, two other puzzles on the page, were increased, too. Readers responded with thanks for the quick changes.
Milne also took a new look at the New York Times crossword puzzle, which runs on Sundays in the Arts & Entertainment section. Instead of shrinking it to fit the narrower page, he began moving other puzzles on the page around. The result: The Times crossword puzzle will remain the same size as before, and the other puzzles will even grow a little.
Along with the new page size, the paper last Monday began shifting toward a more regional approach in local news coverage.
The paper began producing three daily zoned sections – Local News, Philadelphia and South Jersey – instead of the five we had produced before. The paper introduced a new set of locally focused Neighbors sections – on Thursdays – in the Pennsylvania suburbs, covering Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware and Chester Counties, and the Main Line.
Over the course of the week, the paper received about 160 phone calls and e-mails from readers commenting on the new zoned editions. The coverage plan received a mixed review.
Joyce Leff, a retired teacher from Rydal, said she wanted more local news in her paper, not less.
“I treasure my paper. I feel like it’s being eroded from under me,” she said. Others, though, applauded the new approach, saying they were more interested in regional issues, on a daily basis, and the Neighbors section they received Thursday had retained its local news quality.
Although I think the paper is off to a solid start, it will take some time for the new sections to get up to full speed. As the sections evolve over the next few months, readers are invited to continue to give us feedback. You are welcome to write or call me, to say what parts of the coverage you enjoy and where you think we fall short.
For several weeks, we’ve been hearing from readers who are upset that some TV programs listed in the Inquirer magazine are incorrect.
Anne Gordon, associate managing editor, says increased competition among cable and broadcast companies has prompted many last-minute changes in the programming.
Some readers have blamed the mistakes on the change from the old TV Week to the new magazine format. But Gordon says production deadlines for the old TV Week were only a day later than those for the magazine, and they wouldn’t have caught the last-minute changes either.
A tip of the hat to The Inquirer’s Pulitzer finalists: Gil Gaul, Frank Fitzpatrick, Karen Heller and Trudy Rubin. Although they did not win this time around, their distinctive work was recognized by juries of their peers as being among the best in the nation.
