Change not easy for some, but we adapt

Sunday, June 14, 2009

A reader complained this past week about some moves The Gazette has made: placing comics, weather and puzzles on new pages and legal ads on the back page; dropping an advice columnist and shrinking the size of the pages we print.

 The reader also expressed concern about shrinking the number of pages we print but we've actually added some, thanks to advertising, in recent weeks.

"I realize in making the paper smaller, you've had to make sacrifices," the reader wrote in an e-mail. "I'm seriously thinking about canceling my subscription -- I know many people who have."

I don't advocate dropping the paper. People doing that in favor of online or other news sources have played critical roles in the newspaper industry's current predicament. And we won't make specific changes that were suggested.

But I'm going to take the reader's side on this point about keeping a newspaper viable, and here's why:

It's because many of us have complaints about changes in many industries that resulted in having fewer services than what we became accustomed to when economic times were better. I catch myself making the complaints when I get stuck on the phone with an out-of-state person when I have a service question about a product. Or with fewer available sales clerks when I want them. More first-run TV dramas would be nice. School districts should stop cutting staff and give more affordable learning opportunities to all kids.

For certain, a good way to kill newspapers is to stop supporting them. But a newspaper cannot work up fear about that. After all, doing so doesn't make for much of a marketing campaign. Instead, we continue at The Gazette to analyze decisions we've made and seek ways to make the newspaper relevant for readers, focusing on local news and information, despite changing economics and growing costs at our end.

The thing about change is, we usually complain about it when we want to revert to just those few things we became comfortable with back in the day. We don't like change but are OK with technological advances that improve our personal and public health, give us 24/7 access to information, help us prepare food quickly and entertain us.

Most of us are OK with change and adapt to it, which, of course, frustrates even more those who are not OK with it. By the way, we have heard plenty of positive comments, too, about changes we've made in the paper recently. But if you must go online, try www.gazetteonline.com/

I thought about this notion of change while reading The Annals of Iowa edition that arrived last week. It has a story about Jay Alexander.  The State Historical Society of Iowa publishes The Annals quarterly.

I knew Alexander when I was a kid growing up in Eastern Iowa as Marshal J, the cowboy on channel 2, which was WMT-TV then, who hosted an afternoon children's show.

I thought he was the greatest. I was unaware of some of the demons alcohol provoked in his life and would not have cared. I still don't think it diminishes what he meant to young kids growing up. All I cared about back then was that this real cowboy rode horses, did rope tricks, showed cartoons, knew people like Gabby Hayes and entertained me each afternoon.

I was upset when Marshall J left in January 1961 and petulantly declared to my parents that I would not like the new guy,

Dr. Max. Change is hard on someone the age of 7 1/2. Yet, what a shame it would have been for those Eastern Iowa youngsters behind me in years to have not experienced the irreplaceable Dr. Max, seen here with his sidekick,

Mombo the Clown.