:
SoFlo: TRIBUNE TRIBULATIONS
... And The SF Sun-Sentinel (4#) -

Chief Editor Earl Maucker has informed Editor & Publisher that his newspaper is undergoing a redesign process which he expects to complete within a month.

[Meanwhile, the website is in serious need
of redesign primarily because it's too cluttered.]

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The Good, The Bad & The Ugly . . .

I buy both local newspapers on Sunday, but I don't read the entire paper on Sunday because I don't want to spend all afternoon just reading newspapers.

Yesterday, the SF Sun-Sentinel blocked out their top headline on the front page with a big red sticker. Thus, I have no idea from the hard copy what it says. I don't think this is a good idea.

The Sentinel's cultural section was a mixed bag.

The Good: Above the fold, their centerpiece article was a nicely written book review by Chauncey Mabe of Telex from Cuba - nothing wrong with this.

Underneath this article, however, is a Commentary by Ralph De la Cruz which was completely inappropriate to this section. The topic of his Opinion piece: people who are forced by their reduced circumstances to live in their automobiles.

I don't see anything funny about this topic; it is not a Sitcom or any form of Entertainment. This Op Ed piece should have been included in the Editorial section of the newspaper. It should not have been juxtaposed with Entertainment.

Why do you suppose people are sleeping inside their cars? In Fort Lauderdale, redneck kids go out hunting homeless people and beat them to death with baseball bats on videotape - it's a sport there.

The inclusion of Cruz' essay on this topic in the cultural section, grouped together with Entertainment, exhibited very poor editorial judgement, I thought.

Lastly: inside this section I was startled to discover an utterly vacuous article about the upcoming X-Files movie which, I believe, is scheduled to debut July 25th. The Sentinel article contained no information about the movie and was a total waste of space. Perhaps Mr Maucker was not paying attention because he's preoccupied with his redesign project. Or does this indicate a new trend at the Sentinel: articles which have no meaningful content?

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In Other Tribune News . . .

Four former Book Editors of the Tribune's LAT are protesting the termination of the LAT Sunday Book Review. Maybe there's nobody left in LA who reads English; otherwise, why antagonize your most literate readers?

And Lee Abrams, who is the Tribune Syndicate's new Dramaturge, has issued a new memo, which is a bit of a rant. He says the Tribune is getting a lot of coverage because they're making dramatic changes and daring to try new and experimental approaches.

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