Out of the Limelight
“All our research through the years and readership studies elsewhere underscored the fact that jumps are hard on readers,” said senior editor John Twohey, chairman of the committee. “People don’t like the experience of hunting for the balance of the stories that start on the front page. The four or five stories on page one represent our very best work, the pieces we have the biggest investment in, the ones reported and edited by our best people.
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“Yet turn inside the main sheet and all that energy and excitement disappears. We spent a lot of time talking about jumps. It’s probably the central issue that drove the redesign. There’s never been as much energy and imagination invested in the front page of the Tribune as is going into it now. And we wanted to replicate it in the jumps.”
Twohey presents all this as the consequence of hard choices, not evidence that the Tribune’s commitment to the arts is wavering. He also insists the total space the Tribune gives the arts will not shrink. But we’re skeptical, in part because the entire editorial hole will shrink in January in obeisance to the corporate mandate for higher profits, in part because of what others say.
“It’ll be sort of a Where’s Waldo? for the arts coverage. Maybe it’ll be in page two, maybe in Tempo. If it’s really big maybe it’ll be on the front page of Tempo with spot color. Even if space isn’t reduced, which seems impossible to us, it’s a step backwards.”
For an idea of the penury that afflicts the Tribune these days, read Brenda Starr. Columnist Mary Schmich, who also writes the strip, has launched another story line that unintentionally, coincidentally, and by the sheerest happenstance lampoons what’s going on at her paper. It’s the third we’ve noticed so far.
“This plan will increase profits and productivity.”
