June 28, 2009 03:25 am
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Selecting features for a daily newspaper is sometimes not among the rewarding aspects of the profession. On a smaller scale, it's akin to holding a high government office: Your decisions are going to make some people happy but are going to displease others. Guess which ones you hear from more often.
Yet we want to hear from our readers, whether their reaction is unfavorable or favorable. That is one of the ways we can gauge the appetites of our audience.
Astonishing as it seems, when we change something as seemingly innocuous as a comic strip, we invariably provoke some readers to cancel their subscriptions. Even if they don't cancel, we know that some people will be disappointed and perhaps see less value in their newspaper. This is most disappointing to us, of course.
So why do we make changes?
Mostly because we sense or are told repeatedly that a feature has outlived its intrigue for a large share of our audience. Possibly, we'll be able to attract and hold new readers by introducing an element geared to them. Like every other media outlet in America, we would like to interest a new generation of potential readers. Capturing the electronic devotees in the 15-to-30 age group is difficult to fulfill but a passionate desire of all newspapers.
When we canceled the "For Better or Worse" strip from the daily paper in February, we were taking a chance. The strip was going through a transition that wasn't attractive to us or to most readers, although it, of course, still appealed to its most ardent fans, many of whom told us so.
The creator of the strip, Lynn Johnston, had decided to terminate the story line and either redo past episodes with new elements or just carry reruns. Neither of those options was going to build an audience for us, so we changed to "Mutts." That strip never did seem to live up to billing.
Thus, we're canceling "Mutts" as of this Monday and replacing it with the acclaimed "Zits," in which artists Jerry Scott and Jim Bornman humorously and empathetically explore relationships between teenagers and their parents. The two cartoonists got acquainted in 1995 while separately awaiting the changing of a blown tire on a plane at Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta. They launched "Zits" in 1997, and it now is in 1,600 newspapers in 45 countries and 15 languages. We've run it past lots of people, and almost all thought it was funny.
We realize some people still wish we'd resurrect "For Better or Worse." Some might even miss "Mutts." But we're confident readers will appreciate the humor and the messages of "Zits." We ask that you give it a fair and objective try. (Meanwhile, both "For Better or Worse" and "Zits" continue in our Sunday comics section.)
We're interested in your opinions, either way. Please e-mail reactions, positive or negative, to letters@press
republican.com.
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