CJ's "expanded" Scene: Less is more?

[Robin Garr]

Okay, so who's picked up and read the new Saturday Scene in today's CJ, the one that was billed as featuring expanded food and dining coverage with Sarah's and Marty's Friday columns rolled in?

Maybe it's just my imagination, but it looks like more Gannett smoke and mirrors to me. Marty's review column is about the same length as usual (629 words), but the Dine section is no longer a pull-out, and it appears that it's all short capsules - most of them announcements or PR releases - presented with a new, "youthful" look full of white space and color. Less is more?

Scene was such a ground-breaking, cutting-edge effort when The Louisville Times rolled it out back in the '70s, and it stayed excellent for a long time. I don't think the CJ ever really understood it, though, and it started downhill rapidly after they killed The Times and merged the afternoon edition into the CJ. (And it's probably no coincidence that LEO launched at just about that same time.)

I'm not exactly "youthful", but if I was I'd be upset that Gannett thinks I'm semi-literate and fascinated by the print equivalent of shiny objects.

Really, does every two paragraph blurb need an accompanying photograph?

The thing is just ads with an occasional article, and most of the articles are ads in disguise. I wonder how tied in the advertisers are with the blurbs.

Since we've gotten rid of the tv, I've really noticed how little news is in the cj. Sometimes it's nice to curl up with a newspaper and a cup of coffee rather than sitting in fron of the computer screen.

I haven't even gotten a chance to look at it yet today, but I've definitely noticed that the sections are all collapsing into themselves. For ex, the health section in the Thurs paper is now part of the Features.

If our older boys didn't like to read it, I'd stop subscribing.

I'm not exactly "youthful", but if I was I'd be upset that Gannett thinks I'm semi-literate and fascinated by the print equivalent of shiny objects.

Really, does every two paragraph blurb need an accompanying photograph?

I agree 100% -- I guess they figure we don't have an attention span beyond about a hundred words -- or maybe they don't.

A minor but indicative example of the quality of their work is the entertainment ad for the Kingpin Lanes buried at page 7, square in the middle of the "fashion" pages.

The Scene dumbed down to the level of Velocity. Anyone notice that the same bunch of Brittany Spears/JLo/Paris Hilton-obsessed pop-culture nitwits (Angie Fenton, Tamara Ikenberg et al) that made Velocity an irrevelant publication are the stars of the new Scene? All we need now is another Beverly Bartlett column weeping about Princess Di to complete the circle.

[Robin Garr]

There's an interesting article in today's New York Times about the St. Petersburg Times, whose aging family owner created a non-profit institute to run the newspaper as a quality operation rather than dumping it to a chain to save inheritance taxes. I wish Barry Bingham Sr. had done something like that.

In the NY Times story, there's this poignant observation, where they single out the CJ as one of a small group of once-great newspapers that's lost its reputation thanks to budget slashing:

"<I>That was just the latest in a wave of seismic changes that include plummeting stock prices for publicly owned newspaper companies (including The New York Times Company), the divestiture of the Knight Ridder chain and the cost-cutting that has ravaged newspapers like The Baltimore Sun, The Miami Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer, <b>The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky.</b>, and The Los Angeles Times.</i>"

Pitiful.

I agree with most everything said here. The dumbing down of daily media is pathetic - and I am fearful of what may happen to the Wall Street Journal, one of the last serious dailies available. The Scene change is one more example of "shiny object" media - I guess targeted toward the video game crowd as they mature into *potential* readers ....

We dropped our subscription to the CJ several years ago due to its decline but still normally bought it on Friday for the Scene section. Now that this section has also been changed for the worse we don't have to worry about buying it either! Just another example of the overall decline of newspapers in general and the CJ to be specific. Gannett will soon drop off the face of the earth if their papers don't improve rapidly.

I can only guess that our neighborhood paper carrier knew what the reaction to the new Scene comic book was going to be like so he decided to deliver our Saturday paper this morning. Yep, walked out this morning to find both my Saturday and Sunday paper side by side in the driveway. Was out of town until late last night and hadn't even noticed it was missing.

I did a little carving on both papers and just cut out the "news" stories and came up with a pamphlet that is smaller than my college campus newspaper was in 1980.

I admit to being a hold out when it came to the C-J. Having grown up reading both the Times and the C-J I didn't want to admit what has been plainly obvious for some time. I just cancelled my subscription this morning.

sigh

Bring back The Jelly-Bean Journal!

The CJ has a few -- very few -- redeeming portions, so, don't forget that virtually everything you get in the print edition is available on line, and it's --Lord, how long will this last? -- still FREE!

They even claim that the coupons are the same as their Sunday ones. Don't know about that, but I do know that when I printed just one coupon last week as a test, I ended up with 48 -- yes, 48 -- tracking cookies on my hard drive, three of which required a reboot to wipe!

PS: Had to change my logo today. I said it as a Brooklyn Dodger fan -- yes, I went to Ebbetts Field as a kid -- and now I'm saying it as a Met fan: Wait'll next year!

I had the same reaction Robin had when I opened the paper yesterday. I didn't do metrics on it but I'd say the grpahics and white spaces occupy more area than text. I'm not quite 50 but am approaching Mr. Magoo territory and I'm fairly sure the font is a little smaller as well. I don't post often and can't recall ever actually saying anything mean, but I am really fed up with the C-J crap. We still subscribe 365 days but that is mainly because there are some things we'll see that we may not run into elsewhere. Like everybody we already read the LEO, but can anybody advise some group of websites or other alternative sources of text information that is organized in a friendly way to find local, national and international news as well as science, arts...well, you know, the stuff the C-J would be doing if they were worth a flying f*ck. I know this is off topic, but Robin started it. Help us out, guys, because if I can get a list of sources to replace the pitiful C-J I'll cancel the subscription this week.
Thanks to anyone who can offer constructive advice.

The CJ has a few -- very few -- redeeming portions, so, don't forget that virtually everything you get in the print edition is available on line, and it's --Lord, how long will this last? -- still FREE!

Not to worry. I think it will be lots of content for free for some time. The papers have decided it's time to sell online ads in order to grow revenues to replace shrinking subs, so you should have access for the intermediate future. Who knows what will be next ...

[Robin Garr]

can anybody advise some group of websites or other alternative sources of text information that is organized in a friendly way to find local, national and international news as well as science, arts...well, you know

Probably tailoring your own version of <b>Google News</b> to seek Google keywords related to Louisville along with regular news would work.

In fairness, though, as happy as I am to bash Gannett and the CJ, even with their diminished commitment and investment, they've got more staff covering local news than anybody else, and if you want to keep up with what's going on in the city, you can't really stop checking at least the front pages, on paper or online, bearing in mind of course that the level of professionalism has dropped so far that it's best to get the same story from several different sources if possible.