Changes at the Hartford Courant

[imjustagirl]

Because God knows the paper doesn't win awards.

From Poynter. Says the Saturday sports section will merge with features for an "outdoors-themed hybrid". Argh. Also no word on how many will lose their jobs.

Memo from Hartford Courant's managing editor

From: Roessner, Barbara
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 4:14 PM
To: Courant News Staff
Subject: first draft of "new" weekday courant sections...

Thanks for your smart, suprising, funny, imaginative ideas for the
"new" weekday paper, pending a substantial cut in space and staff. As
we deadline types well know, there's nothing like extreme pressure to
clarify the mind -- hence the deluge of good, even great, ideas. I have
yet to settle on content specifics, but your input has helped inform my
first run at how the paper will be sectioned. I presented this to
advertising, production and circulation veeps this morning. I'll be
hearing back from them later in the week, as I'm sure I'll be hearing
from you.

The basic weekday architecture consists of three broadsheet sections
(exceptions on Monday, when comics/puzzles roll into Sports; and
Saturday, when features and Sports merge into an outdoors-themed
hybrid). The three basic sections are:

CT/NEWS
Frontload the A section with Connecticut news, including facing pages
on A2 and A3 to showcase what distinguishes the Courant from all other
media outlets -- the scope, breadth and depth of our state and local coverage. (Eliminate freestanding Connecticut section.)

Include strategically chosen, consumer-focused economic and business
news in the A section, boldly labeled. (Eliminate freestanding Biz
section. Stock tables to web.)

Include nation/world pages, In Brief and In Depth, in back of section.

Editorial page(s).

CT/LIFE
Theme features sections on Tuesday (music/youth culture), Wednesday
(health/aging), Thursday (food/consumer), Friday (home/family), Saturday
(outdoors/things to do), with obits moving to back of sections.

Eliminate Monday Life (puzzles, etc., fold into back of sports),
eliminate Thursday and Friday Life (Flavor, At Home morph into main
features sections), Saturday Life merges with outdoors-themed Sports
section.

Keep Cal.

CT/SPORTS
Maintain weekday Sports section, showcasing Connecticut-centric
enterprise and reducing newshole by moving much of the agate and
national coverage online, with bold web refers in print. Eliminate most,
or all, special sections; roll them into daily sections.

Monday Sports section absorbs comics/puzzles. Saturday sports section
merges with features, showcasing outdoors or "Get Out" theme.

Okay, that's the gist. I await the fallout, as I press forward with
more specifics on page counts, color positions and specific content that
will make this smaller, smarter paper an interesting weekday read. I'll
keep you posted as a final draft takes shape and we move on to a
page-by-page redesign.

Thanks again,
Bobbie

[Beaker]

This is going to be a disaster. Ugh.

[BYH]

Jesus, that's going to redefine the suck.

I don't get it. It was such a great paper. And it keeps gutting and gutting and gutting.

Fuck Sam Zell, fuck Tribune, fuck every gutless beancounter.

[Stone Cane]

Ya ever wonder why we're all even bothering?

I do.

Kind of feel like somebody using a little kid's bucket to bail out water from the titantic as it plunges downward.

I'm depressed.

I miss newspapers.

[imjustagirl]

I like this part

Thanks for your smart, suprising, funny, imaginative ideas for the
"new" weekday paper, pending a substantial cut in space and staff. As
we deadline types well know, there's nothing like extreme pressure to
clarify the mind -- hence the deluge of good, even great, ideas.

Translation: "Thank you for scrambling to impress me in hopes of saving your jobs. Too bad!"

[BYH]

I like this part

Thanks for your smart, suprising, funny, imaginative ideas for the
"new" weekday paper, pending a substantial cut in space and staff. As
we deadline types well know, there's nothing like extreme pressure to
clarify the mind -- hence the deluge of good, even great, ideas.

Translation: "Thank you for scrambling to impress me in hopes of saving your jobs. Too bad!"

I like how she can't even spell surprising. I guess Sam has told the beanies that r's are expensive.

[BYH]

And another read of that post makes me even madder.

The ONLY thing newspapers have going for it is the older reader, the one who's not going to surf the web for boxscores or stock tables. They're just alienating the core, more and more and more. And no business section? Are they on crack?

What made the Courant good--and sometimes great--was that it summarized for tiny Connecticut the entire nation. They covered everything. You picked up the Courant, you got a comprehensive summary of the day's news. None of this burying-national-news-in-the-back shit. That's what the smaller papers were for.

The Courant COULDN'T be everything to everyone by going all local. Back in the day, it knew that. And sure, us small towners were pissed we only made the front page of the Courant if someone hacked someone up in town, but that's just the way it was. You want hyper-local, subscribe to the local paper. The Courant gave us everything else.

Now? Now Courant readers get an "...A section with Connecticut news, including facing pages
on A2 and A3 to showcase what distinguishes the Courant from all other media outlets -- the scope, breadth and depth of our state and local coverage. (Eliminate freestanding Connecticut section.)"

Oh. So ELIMINATING an entire section devoted to CONNECTICUT makes you MORE DISTINGUISHED? Honestly? how the fuck do these fucking assholes even look at themselves in the mirror? How do you learn to lie thru your teeth like this? And really, being distinguished from all other media outlets--most owned by the JRC--in Connecticut...isn't that a lot like being the tallest midget? Big fucking deal. You're better than the New Haven Register and the clusterfuck of JRC dailies in the middle of the state. Good for you. Here. Have a fucking cookie. It'll probably have to sustain you for the day b/c next up on the chopping block is the fucking snack machine.

Cocksucking assholes.

[imjustagirl]

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a study in rage.

[Joe Williams]

And another read of that post makes me even madder.

The ONLY thing newspapers have going for it is the older reader, the one who's not going to surf the web for boxscores or stock tables. They're just alienating the core, more and more and more. And no business section? Are they on crack?

I said years ago, long before this crisis, back when management would do re-designs and focus group b.s. just as a big ol' circle jerk to justify their salaries, that chasing after the twentysomethings and alienating the loyal longtime readers was the equivalent of a brewery deciding to snub Joe Sixpack in favor of the wine cooler crowd.

End result: The wine cooler crowd sneers at you anyway, and you lose the folks who have carried you for decades. You end up with neither, because you're a brewery trying to make wine coolers.

Every time I think of most print reporters toting camcorders or stepping in front of them, I'm reminded of that. Every time some non-journalist takes over a newspaper and dictates the future, too.

[zebracoy]

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a study in rage.

Yet it's all true.

[MMatt60]

Didn't the former editor of the Mercury News suggest "re-sectioning" before she was axed?

[2muchcoffeeman]

Maintain weekday Sports section, showcasing Connecticut-centric
enterprise and reducing newshole by moving much of the agate and
national coverage online, with bold web refers in print. Eliminate most,
or all, special sections; roll them into daily sections.

Monday Sports section absorbs comics/puzzles. Saturday sports section
merges with features, showcasing outdoors or "Get Out" theme.

So Saturday's sports section ... has no fan-oriented sports coverage?

Fail.

Frontload the A section with Connecticut news, including facing pages
on A2 and A3 to showcase what distinguishes the Courant from all other
media outlets -- the scope, breadth and depth of our state and local coverage. (Eliminate freestanding Connecticut section.)

Include strategically chosen, consumer-focused economic and business
news in the A section, boldly labeled. (Eliminate freestanding Biz
section. Stock tables to web.)

Include nation/world pages, In Brief and In Depth, in back of section.

In a presidential election year? Fail².

I predict many subscription cancellations.

[steveu]

The Hartford Courant was a great newspaper.

The key word here, as you might expect, is "was".

This new Courant is a clusterfuck waiting to happen. Can't wait to hear all the pissed-off people complaining, not that it will do any good.

[Frank_Ridgeway]

It's Satuwday! Goin' wabbit huntin'!

[Michael_ Gee]

       These are some seriously bad ideas. I got laid off, and I know it sucks, but it might not suck as bad as working for people who think that was thinking.

[Double Down]

Thanks Hartford!

Now, Baltimore, c'mon down!

You're next on The Tribune Company Commits Hara-Kiri!

[Michael_ Gee]

     I went to college in Connecticut, many years ago, and if I recollect, they have high school football there Friday nights. This could lead to problems for the new non-sports Saturday paper.

[Frank_Ridgeway]

     I went to college in Connecticut, many years ago, and if I recollect, they have high school football there Friday nights. This could lead to problems for the new non-sports Saturday paper.

Aside from that, outdoorspeople tend to plan and are up before dawn on Saturdays. They do not wait for the Saturday paper and say to themselves: "Hmmmmm, on second thought, maybe I will shoot me some squirrels today. Thanks, Courant!"

[imjustagirl]

Well, football IS played outdoors...

[slappy4428]

Hope "Bobbie" is prepared for the shitstorm in September with football.....

[MMatt60]

If they try this experiment, the Saturday sports section would go back to its previous form in, say, six weeks.

[slappy4428]

If they try this experiment, the Saturday sports section would go back to its previous form in, say, six weeks.

More like the second football Saturday edition

[Double Down]

This stupid shit will not save newspapers.

Wanna be bold? Innovative? Risk-taking?

Start charging to read your fucking paper on line. Tomorrow. Tribune wide.

You pay for a subscription, you have full access to the on-line version, the paper's archives, and all kinds of new stuff.

But stop dressing up stupid and calling it new and improved.

[mustangj17]

Didn't they already have a big round of buyouts errrr, layoffs? I can't keep 'em straight. There are so many. But shit. This is getting ridiculous.

[JayFarrar]

This stupid shit will not save newspapers.

Wanna be bold? Innovative? Risk-taking?

Start charging to read your fucking paper on line. Tomorrow. Tribune wide.

You pay for a subscription, you have full access to the on-line version, the paper's archives, and all kinds of new stuff.

But stop dressing up stupid and calling it new and improved.

Agreed.
But the Trib's suits fear the online lynch mob more than they fear people canceling their subscriptions.
I really think knuckleheads like Jeff Jarvis are destroying papers with the hope they can get some of the fallout advertising cash for their goddam blogs.
The people who bitch most about papers trying to charge for content are the ones who have the most to gain when more and more papers fail.
It really is that simple.