Explain this to me like I'm a 5-year-old

The key is to make the blurbs different than what's played inside. It perks up their interest and they turn to the inside pages. And I think they want to spotlight the columnists rather than run a short game-type story on the cover.

If the two papers are going to share the insides, maybe they ought to share what's on the front. Use the same big spot on the cover for both columnists. It's kind of like when papers zone for different editions and pick up certain parts of the page.