I expected to hate it. And I do.
My one ray of hope looking at yesterday's paper was that Matt Eagan -- a funny, bright and talented fellow who once worked with me at the Press -- might have a new sports column, but it turns out that he simply happened to be the first of a rotating group of sportwriters to spout off.
What's wrong with the new design? It's a thin and sort of sad effort to hide the diminishment of a once great American newspaper. What's left of the Courant is more vapid than I imagined it would be, particularly the anonymous and out-of-context reader comments at the top of some pages. Yuck.
Obviously, I don't have the answer for how to prevent newspapers from going the way of cobblers and blacksmiths, but I am confident that the Courant, despite what I'm sure was an honest effort to make the best of a bad situation, hasn't stumbled on the solution either.
What do you all think? What's good and bad about the new Courant? Does anybody think it's better. If you do, why?
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
11 comments:
I think that it fails to recognize the news of any community other than Hartford and is generic, at best, in it's coverage of it's bureau's areas. Not good.
Format way too busy.
We need quality of reporting and pertinece of reporting, both in the Press AND the Courant!
Connecticut's version of the USA Today. All splash and no substance. A publication in a death roll.
Goodbye subscribers and then goodbye advertisers.
I think the Bristol Observer does a better job than both the Bristol Press and Hartford Courant...and the best part is that it's FREE and delivered right to my door.
I'm ready to give up on the Courant and simply read this blog.
That somebody could say the Observer does "a better job" than either the Courant or the Press shows the kind of odds newspapers face nowadays. That's such a ridiculous statement that it could only have come from an Observer editor, a pageant mother or a halfwit.
I don't even bother to take a quick glance at the Observer anymore because I can get the city's press releases on this blog and I don't care about the latest fashion or what Miss Bristol is doing.
Anyone else ever wonder why that guy Chaiken at the Observer is always and forever taking photos of pageant queens and princesses, fashion shows in Florida, girl swim teams... ICK.
The Courant sucked on Sunday but the advertising fillers at least made it feel hefty.
The three section 34 page Courant today made me realize I am wasting my money.
Bye Bye HC
The Courant's gone the same way as The Press, downhill.
I hate the new format. Now the Courant is almost as sucky as the Bristol Press. But at least the Bristol Press does good local political coverage, so there is a lot of value there.
Who cares about format, give us some actual reporting and news. When there are more ads than news it is an ad paper, not a news paper. The courant is pathetic.
PS If you are a long time subscriber, stop your subscription and they will come crawling to you in 30 days with a 2/3 off offer for a year's subscription. Pass it on.
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