Monthly Archive for August, 2009

Questions, answers about major TV book changes

Published
by
Peter Baniak
on August 24, 2009
in Television
. 5 Comments

Sunday, Aug. 23, is the last day that every reader of the Herald-Leader will receive a TV book for free.

Starting next Sunday, On TV Magazine, the new listings book carried by the Herald-Leader, will be delivered only to readers who have subscribed to the magazine for 59 cents a week. The Herald-Leader has delivered On TV for free the last four weeks to give you a flavor for the magazine, and to help ease the transition.

I know this is a big change, especially for the dedicated group of readers who rely on the in-paper listings to find their favorite programs and plan their TV viewing. It’s not a change we make lightly.

But, for financial reasons, it’s a change the Herald-Leader needed to make.

It’s also an opportunity for us to give readers of the TV book something they’ve long told us they want: A better TV book with a lot more content.

Over the last few weeks, I and other Herald-Leader employees have spoken to many readers who have called with questions or concerns about this change. Here are answers to some of the most common:

Why make the change?

TV books have increasingly become a conundrum for newspapers. They are expensive to produce — the Herald-Leader was spending $165,750 a year to produce its 12-page book. The cost is especially prohibitive when you consider that fewer readers are using the in-paper book in an era of cable channel listings, digital video recorders and listings on the Web.

That meant thousands of TV Books were being discarded each week without ever being opened.

Switching to an opt-in model allows us to deliver a higher quality book of TV listings to readers who really want one. Yes, this saves expense for the Herald-Leader, but it also saves a lot of wasted newsprint (and that’s better for the environment).

The Herald-Leader is not the first newspaper to switch to an opt-in model; other papers around the country are distributing TV books only to consumers who want them and are willing to pay a small additional fee.

Why is it necessary to charge for On TV Magazine when the old TV Book was free?

In the 14 years I’ve been at the Herald-Leader, the story of the TV Book has been one of near-constant contraction. Time and again, the book was reduced in size, losing content along the way. Over the years, the book shrank from 44 tabloid pages or more down to the 12-page tab that we last printed in July.

Every time the TV Book shrank, we’d hear about it from those who rely on the listings. And each time, they would tell us that the book just didn’t have enough information.

The new On TV Magazine, at 44 pages, restores a lot of that valuable content. It has more listings for more hours (including late night listings), a more complete movie guide, daily highlights, games, puzzles, trivia and more. It’s also in an easier-to-handle “book” format.

Beefing up the TV offerings required adding a weekly subscription price of 59 cents, which is in the middle range of newspapers who have switched to an opt-in model.

Can I still get any free listings from the Herald-Leader?

We still offer free local listings on our Web site. To find them, go here. Then click on “Search TV Listings.” This feature allows you to set up your own TV grids for free, based on your viewing preferences.

Who produces On TV Magazine?

On TV is produced by NTVB Media, which has been in the TV listings business for 25 years. It is inserted into the Herald-Leader for subscribers who opt in. Subscriptions to On TV are handled by NTVB, not by the Herald-Leader.

What if I buy the paper at the grocery story or gas station on Sunday?

Readers who buy at retail outlets will get a smaller 16-page version of On TV, called On Lite. These single-copy buyers already pay the full Sunday Herald-Leader cover price of $2, which is significantly more than what home-delivery subscribers pay.

What do I need to do to keep getting a TV book?

If you want to continue receiving On TV Magazine in your Sunday paper, you can send in the form on the cover of Sunday’s magazine, go to www.iwantmytvmagazine.com/lexington on the Web or call (800) 999-8881 (then press 6). The phone option is available during regular business hours weekdays and before 11 a.m. on the weekend .

- Peter Baniak, pbaniak@herald-leader.com

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We heard your calls on the comics

Published
by
Peter Baniak
on August 16, 2009
in Comics
. 6 Comments

To all Herald-Leader comics readers:

We understand your passion. And we heard you. Brewster Rockit: Space Guy! will not fly in the Bluegrass.

We have cut short a planned two-month run of the space-adventure spoof comic strip because of an overwhelmingly negative reader response. Hundreds of you called or wrote to let us know how much you disliked the strip. Many of those readers also made it plain that Daddy’s Home was among their favorite strips.

No more than six of you weighed in with praise for Brewster.

So the decision was obvious: Send Brewster to the far reaches of the galaxy.

Starting Monday, we are going to test-run one more strip: Mallard Fillmore. Over the years, we have heard readers’ complaints that our comics pages have several strips, most notably Doonesbury, that lean left, but none that lean right. So, for a month, we’ll see how the conservative duck fares with you.

In other comics news, we also heard from many irate fans of the single-panel comic Non Sequitur. Last year, in ­response to a drawn-out campaign to return Dennis the Menace to the comics pages from the classified section, we put Dennis back on the comics section and sent Non-Sequitur to the classifieds.

The problem is, Non Sequitur is ­wordier and more detailed than many comics, and at a size that fits on the ­classified pages, it becomes hard to read. So we’re working on a way to get Non ­Sequitur back on the comics pages as well.

Now for some background, and an answer to the question of why we “keep tinkering with the comics.”
We are well aware of the value of the comics pages, and we know that ­whenever we make a change, we’re going to hear from people. That’s a good thing.

The trouble is, everyone’s idea of a great comic is different. So we try to give all readers a few comics that they’ll like.

It’s the strips that too few people care about that we try to replace. That’s what prompted the latest experiment.

When we debuted Daddy’s Home last August to replace For Better or For Worse (whose story line was ending), we didn’t hear anything, good or bad, and we began to wonder: Is anyone reading this strip?

Now we know.

To offer feedback about the comics pages, please call (859) 231-1368 or send an e-mail to comics@herald-leader.com.

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Why no comments on Pitino stories?

Published
by
Peter Baniak
on August 13, 2009
in News and Sports
. 25 Comments

I’ve gotten a few questions by email today, wanting to know why commenting has been disabled on stories about the Rick Pitino saga in Louisville. Internet commenting has been a subject of great debate in the news industry for quite some time, and a subject of much discussion in the Herald-Leader newsroom.

We allow commenting on most stories, but take heightened care with commenting on a few categories of stories that in the past have shown that they tend to get out of hand in ways that violate or get awfully close to violating our commenting policy. Among other things, that policy states that users may not post a comment that is “libelous, defamatory, obscene, abusive, that violates a third party’s right to privacy, that otherwise violates any applicable local, state, national or international law, or that is otherwise inappropriate.”

We do not have the staff to monitor comments on every story on the site on a minute-by-minute basis, though we do respond to reports of abuse. And in the past, commenting on some types of stories has moved into inappropriate areas quickly. Frankly, from experience, one of the categories that we look at more carefully involves allegations of a sexual nature or stories involving sex. In the Pitino case, given the nature of the allegations contained in the police report, it was our expectation that the commenting would get out of hand quickly – and we would not have the capacity to monitor or remove inappropriate comments quickly enough. So commenting was disabled.

I know this isn’t popular with everyone who uses the site, but we thought it prudent to make the decision on the front end.

It’s worth noting that other news outlets also did not allow commenting on these stories, though some did. I have looked at a few media sites that are allowing commenting on the Pitino stories, and that has, to me, validated our decision to disable commenting. On many of those sites, the commenting has devolved into crude sexual commentary, vulgarity, and tasteless personal attacks on both of the parties involved in the story.

In the unusual cases when we disable story commenting, we try to give readers other avenues to express their opinions. On this story, there are many such avenues. First, there is a poll on www.kentucky.com connected with the stories that allows readers to vote on whether Pitino should keep his job. As always, forums and message boards are available on the Web site for readers to discuss the story. And John Clay, who monitors comments on his blog, is allowing comments on Sidelines (as well as commentary appearing on Twitter about the Pitino) matter.

Again, thanks to all those who shared their thoughts on commenting in this case. If you have any questions or comments on commenting, feel free to contact me at pbaniak@herald-leader.com.

Peter Baniak

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