Trib Flips, Trib Flops, Trib Flips (Back)

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One of the last things that most of us would want to do or would be good at would be publishing a daily newspaper like our local Tribune. There have been a rash of ownership changes throughout the publishing world, and our local paper has not been immune to them. There is no need to dwell on the changes except to say that with each change of ownership, the pressure to increase profits apparently increases as new owners try to quickly recapture their investment dollars and wring maximum profits out of the newspaper that they purchased.

Somewhere along the line, readers often seem to be forgotten. Over the past few years, there have been numerous commentaries from the Tribune's several publishers and editors about the focus groups that they have held on planned "improvements" to what most readers seem generally satisfied with. One has to wonder where they find the focus group participants.

During one of my recent lengthy absences, Sandra Duerr, the current Executive Editor, touted a money-saving improvement. It may have saved money for the Tribune, but apparently many readers did not find the improvement portion of the change. I have to admit that when I got back to SLO, the first thought that came to mind when I picked up a copy from my driveway was that we now had Trib-light. I was not impressed that I was able to finish reading that day's edition before I finished my first cup of coffee. I kept trying, but I had no success in getting excited about either the fluff that had been added or the news that had been deleted. It struck me as a flop.

Another focus group must have convened and reached the same general conclusion. The Tribune has now flipped back and is somehow saving even more money; I can hardly wait for the rollback in my annual home-delivery subscription, but I won't hold my breath.

Some readers will never be happy no matter how much the Tribune saves money while improving its product. That's the nature of readers that the editor and publisher have to deal with as they go about trying to put out a good product.

The Tribune is not the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, or the Wall Street Journal. It can't cover national or international affairs as those papers can, but it can cover San Luis Obispo and the surrounding area better than any of those papers can. In fact, the Tribune can cover our county better than all three of them put together. It should focus on doing that and on tying what's happening nationally and internationally to our area. As Sandra Duerr has pointed out several times, people can and do get much of their national and international news on-line, from television and radio, and from the newspapers mentioned above. Let's hope the Tribune simply gives us the best possible coverage of our area.