HATE the whole new look!!

I wouldn't throw away my The Sun logowear just yet. They reinvented our newspaper a few years back, and changed the name from The Rocky Mountain News to The Denver Rocky Mountain News.

That lasted maybe a year, then they changed it back.

Those are the kinds of changes that get made when marketing people start calling the shots. And if they will change a name that is 112 years old on a whim, they won't stick with a name that is only a year old when some form-over-substance doofus decides there is money to be made by by playing the "returning to our roots" card.

I'm not trying to offend, but I thought the redesign was horrible! I felt like I was reading a cross between USA Today and Star Magazine! What kind of a newspaper doesn't have a Metro section? And on a relevent note for you, where was the talk of "more color"? Shouldn't there be color in a Sunday lifestyle section with pictures of fashion and food? It seemed like the only increased color I saw was in the ads! In short, it seemed like a blatent cost savings measure by reducing printing costs, increasing ad revenues and dumbing down the paper for the masses. My two cents!

I think most people reading this blog never pick up the print edition and vice versa.

A very good point. EL

Thankfully, they didn't change Parade magazine! ;-)

(Of course, that's probably due to the fact that Parade is printed by Newhouse and shipped here for insertion into the Sunday Sun.)

The new font that's being used for headlines and section headers is hideous.

In sum, I wouldn't call it a redesign or a reinvention -- a regurgitation is more like it.

I disagree with Todd. There are those of us who are capable of multi-tasking and who both read the print edition and the blog. And I post occasionally.The Sun used to be a place to get news of the world. Below is a copy of the letter I sent to the editor this morning.

I opened up the Sunday paper and was determined to see the new format with an open mind. It didn't work. The first section totaling 34 pages,which is supposed to be the news we want, included almost 20 pages of advertising. I searched for national and international news and had to turn to p. 26 to find one and one-half pages containing two international and two national stories, not counting the special on the Democratic National Convention. The Baltimore Sun, with its fabled history of great overall reporting, has decided that the news must be "dumbed down" and that we are all isolationists. Congratulations.

But regardless of whether we drop our subscription, I will continue to read the blog.

That's all I ask. :-) EL

Who even reads the print editions anymore? I haven't picked up a newspaper since I was a teenager. Viva la internet.

I never get the print edition of the Sun. I just have the spoons player in my band read me the blogs.

I read both the blog and subscribe to the dead tree version.

Overall, I'm trying to decide still how I feel.

Negatives

1) A fear of capitalization seems to have afflicted the section titles.

2) Lighter on content, but sadly that's to be expected with the multiple buyouts.

Positives

1) New layout is a bit easier to read and follow.

2) Sports back to broadsheet format.

Neutral/Pending

1) The name change seems silly. I've always referred to it as The Baltimore Sun, but changing the name after it has stood for over a century doesn't exactly make a lot of sense.

2) The loss of the Maryland and Business sections. I'm withholding final judgment until I see how this You and X format goes, but right now, I'm wary.

I heard from a friend in the printing industry that they are using a new ink that is made partly from coffee and tea extracts that has a high caffeine concentration so that when your hands rub the ink it causes a stimulating effect. It's called trans-biomorphic printing. Apparently they have been testing it in Malaysia and South Korea.

There's something more satisfying about reading an actual newspaper, holding it in your hands, turning the pages, seeing the rumpled pile of finished sections accumulate on the floor as you plow through the paper, your sweetie occasionally pointing out the ink smudges on your face. Especially on Sundays. I used to spend the entire Sunday in a marathon read, plowing through the Washington Post, the NYT, and the Sun (okay, that one never took long).

Sunday is the only day I'm willing to consider going out and purchasing the print edition of the Sun, and today inertia is winning out over any curiosity about the redesign. I'll just read the snarky comments here and use my imagination.

As for the reinvention, I must have missed something. Is something else happening tomorrow?

Candidly, it is not as bad as I expected. They've taken what we used to call circus makeup a step or two further. (Disclosure note: I'm a print dinosaur who retired long ago.) It's not quite the tabloid I expected.
It's the shrinkage that appalls me. I count 11 1/2 pages of news (plus two promotional) out of 34 pages in the main section, far under the 50-50 mark that was supposed to prevail. If that's the future pattern, The Sun is not long for this world.
As for the nameplate, it's ugly. The old one, staid as it was, at least had character. The addition of "Baltimore" is not as great a change as many believe. It's the flip side of the last great reinvention when Reg Murphy took over as publisher, the city name was dropped from the dateline just under the nameplate to court suburbanites who wanted little to do with the city. It didn't work, as the retreat from suburban coverage indicates.
As a one-time weather junkie (I used to walk to work and was a rag sailor), I find the the compression of the weather data worse than useless. For a gang that stresses graphics, I can't understand the elimination of the national map that, however inadequately, put some flesh on the pathetic "print bite" from that TV weather jerk. I get more information about Baltimore weather from The Washington Post. At least they had sense enough to keep Roylance's blog.
At least we will soon be rid of that demeaning picture of Tim Franklin.

The box "About the Blogger" in the upper corner of the main page should be amended to read "...comings and goings on the restaurant scene AND MORE" since we seem to veer off of the topic so much, and so well.

It's their way of trying to rein me in. :-) EL

I have never read a print Sun because the Detroit newspaper strike broke my lifelong newspaper habit. I still mourn the old Freep (the new one is just USA Today style crap, and has been since the JOA).

I'm a bit confused, though. Folks have complained recently about less national and international coverage over the past several years, and it sounds like local coverage has pretty much disappeared. What is left? Wire and ads?

Maybe I'll walk downstairs at the library tomorrow, and take a look at a paper copy.

Ok, found your review without too much difficulty. that's it for me!

Sure, this first Sunday of the Sun's reincarnation was heavy on advertising. My hunch is that the sales department persuaded several advertisers that there would be a lot of interest in the new look -- and to take a crack at reaching more readers than usual. Or maybe they offered some financial incentive. Either way, reading the morning paper is too deeply ingrained a habit -- at least for me -- to give up without a fight. So I'm prepared to cut the Sun's editors some slack and hope that in time, they balance the news with the glitz. Incidentally, it was no surprise that only one Sun columnist wasn't identified with a colorful new photo. As much as I'd like to know what our savant of the sandbox looks like, I appreciate the fact that so, too, would most of our town's restaurant owners.

I've written that the Sun's "Light for All" has been flickering for some years now. See the link.

[http://tinyurl.com/3og8ha]

I've been a print and online Sun reader for years and years. But, I'm not going to renew my print subscription. So sad.

The redesign, reinvention, etc... is truly a regression of the worst kind. The san-serif headline font was old in the mid 1970's, So was the all lower case concept. The layout is also retro in the worst possible way. The new Sun vignette is trash. There is no character left in the Sun. No class. Too bad, so sad.

Thanks Mr. Zell, Thanks so much.

I had to google cinema verite, I'm not about to google casareccio toast too; it looks really good and all I want to know is EL can I come to your house for breakfast next Sunday? All I had for breakfast in my house today was almonds. I'll wear a blindfold and bring some Bailey's for your coffee (or is that tea??)

BTW, does your employer give you free home delivery?

No, I pay for it, but I get a discount. EL

I cancelled my Sun delivery a couple of years ago when I realized that my HS paper was better-written. I grew up in another state) I bounced back and forth between buying The Sun from a street-corner guy and reading The Post. This past winter, while researching something-or-other this blog popped up on Google.

I bought The Sun instead of The Post this morning. Wow. Not a mistake I'll make again.

(Now that I've bored you with this personal stuff, I have questions: Sam Sessa - what the Hoo-hah does he do? The BowTie Guy with the grammar/Martini blog - he does what? There are THREE people writing a blog on the Bay - these are environmental reporters? What happened to Tom Horton? And while we're at it(!) - I miss Gregory Kane! I LOVED disagreeing with that man!!

Sam writes a ton, but maybe not stuff you're interested in, mostly nightlife and music in Live. The Bow Tie Guy is the head of the copy desk, Tom Horton left awhile back. Yes, the bay bloggers are environmental reporters, and Gregory Kane can now be read in the Examiner. EL

Yikes! Do they think this will increase readership? I read the 'news' section and couldn't find any news. It was all fluff.
I read the hard copy a couple of times a week, and the online version daily. I am not going to waste my money on the hard copy anymore. Maybe for the coupons and ads on Sunday's, but that is about it.
They can put a spin on the redesign all they want, but it is still awful.

Your blog master's image is not so secret as you might think. Someone had a sketch artist draw up a likeness that is in many many restaurant kitchens today. Check it out here.

To me, the Sun serves one purpose.... a delivery mechanism for my weekly coupons. What's all this mumbo-jumbo about news and weather and sports you all talk about? Don't you know all they do is print the same stuff that's on TV and the internets?

Owl - hysterical! You got me this time! Trying not to laugh outloud in my cube farm!

Brighter, Prettier color can't cover up poor, biased reporting. I can get the same biased unprofessional reporting from any TV news network, why waste my time reading it?

EL, you're too good for this paper and its silly "reinventions" can't you go independent? Get a buy out like Roch, he was smart.

What I hated most about the re-design was the nearly life-size photos of all of the columnists in the exact same pose. Most of them had the same smirky look on their faces, too. Why in the world do we need a full-body photo of a newspaper columnist? I guess it takes up more space so there'll be less writing by fewer reporters. GRRRR...

I lived in the UK and there were so many good papers there, morning, evening, Saturdays and Sundays. Great writing, brilliant topics and millions of people who read them.

Is The Baltimore Sun a morning or evening paper?

Are there any evening papers left? EL

The Sunday Sun is a Saturday afternoon paper. Try to find a Saturday Sun in a paper box on Saturday. The full Sunday Sun is in the boxes by 11 a.m. (It's all about the Saturday NYT xword, the Shawn Johnson of xwords.)

We're cancelling our subscription. This was the last straw. I can't even list the numerous problems I have with it, from getting rid of the Maryland section (My husband and I have a long standing breakfast tradition of each taking a section and then switching), to minimizing the weather... But I think what annoys me the most right now is how they try to convince the public that all their cost saving measures are somehow features. I cracked up over them claiming that increased line spacing makes the paper "more readable"! BS. Do they think we're complete idiots? Can't they just come clean about their motives? I guess that's an unreasonable expectation.... Anyway, given how tight our budget is right now, the timing is oddly fortunate. We may even start having the examiner delivered, at least it is more cost effective.

There are some. Probably fewer than this chart shows, since it's 2005 data. I'm sure the trendline has continued south.

My guess is that most are small town newspapers.

One of the things I miss most, from back in the day, is getting home in the evening and settling down in the big green La-Z-Boy, with a glass of scotch, to read the evening newspaper.

It is probably on a matter of time before the Post usurps the Baltimore market. They have already moved into A.A. and Howard counties.

What's a shame is that the NYT has better stories on Baltimore than the Sun.

I was hoping there might be one good thing about the redo, but then I checked and found that Rodericks is still on the staff.

The Annapolis Capitol is an evening paper. Or at least it was delivered about 4pm.

RoCK: don't be so coy about your feelings for Dan :-)
I'm with you. He is such a blowhard and should leave Baltimore on the noon train.

RoCK, Ha! LQTM. I was going to write of parody of bloviating cipher Dan Rodricks, but then I thought, "Why should I put more work into a parody than he does into his columns?"

For awhile he was posting a lot of food and restaurant items on his blog. He did one about a kebab/kabob/kebap place that moved. He then posted a five year old review of the old place with the old prices. I posted a comment and very politely asked why he did that. The comment was booted, but he got rid of the review. Now it's personal. What a tool. If I wanted that kind of blog, I would go to ChinaBlogSpace. I guess for him freedom of ego beats freedom of expression.

"Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people's idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone else says anything back, that is an outrage."
-- Winston Churchill

Eve, I'm so happy you asked. I'm not sure myself sometimes, so I had to check.

As the local entertainment reporter, I write weekly nightlife columns: http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bal-columnist-sessa,0,6932249.columnist

weekly Baltimore band profiles: http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bal-live-meettheband,0,6269983.storygallery

blog entries:
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/midnight_sun/blog/

and various other feature stories:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/search/dispatcher.front?Query=sam+sessa&sortby=display_time+descending&subheader-search-button=Go&target=article

Je retourne. Regardez-moi maintenant!

Oh Sam Sessa! How much do yuo loves yrouself now! You will not be happy untill you have sessa-fied the whol world with your parashute pants, meshed t shirts and glitter make ups! And your secret loves of the Jonass borthers and imitation crab!

J'accuse! World, do not be lead into his beard of lies!

AND... Sam also does commentary on Towson Univ's radio station, 89.7.

Rodericks will post all comments to his blog provided that he agrees with them.

I posted something to his blog a year ago when Blob's Park closed about the dearth of German restaurants and the over abundance of Irish Pubs. My three sentence post was edited down to one fragment. After that I won't even look at his blog, and judging by the number of comments he gets, I'm not the only one who isn't looking.

I posted something about 6 weeks ago on his blog, (I don't even remember what it was) and it didn't get posted. Obviously he disagreed with what I said. So much for freedom of speech.
Freedom of speech only applies for him. Not people who don't bow down to him.
That's one big reason I like this blog. You get posted, warts and all.

Welp, this is just another curve in The Sun's ever-deepening downward spiral. Here are the reasons I hate this latest iteration:
* Merging Main News (such as it was) and Maryland into one section. Sadly, even with this merger, there's more advertising than news.
* I MISS GREGORY KANE!!
* Bunching the comics on one page.
* The "trendy" new section names.

Sigh...there's very little reason to read The Sun anymore. What was for decades a paper of substance is now just a compilation of wire service blurbs. I'm very sad....

Dottie, don't be sad. You can still read the restaurant reviews, and as mmmcorn points out, a delivery system for coupons, and most importantly, great fire starter for the coming winter! Gregory Kane, you can read in the other Not the New York Times paper and it's free!

I guess not much happened in the nation and the world yesterday, as there was only 1¼ pages for all of it. :-(

I find it rather appalling that there's actually a section named "you". I'm surprised they didn't go for just "u".

To have a food connection, I'll add the notion that there is nothing finer than to use the Sunpaper to cover the table when eating crabs. But judging from some of the comments I've read here, the next time I get back to B'more, it might be too thin to serve that purpose.

I still haven't seen the new Sun yet. I decided to pick one up from a box near my house last night. Well, look there, it's smaller, crappier and now comes with 50% more price! Idiots. The newspaper box price was raised from 50 cents to 75 and the Sunday from $1.00 to $1.50. That's insane. It's almost as if they want the thing to go out of business. Say you want something to read with lunch or whenever, you look at the emaciated Sun that's now more expensive and then notice that it is paired with B, which is free. Brilliant move morons. Now I'm never going to buy one just out of spite. Go Thundercats!

The Brain Trust wants to kill the street/box market. Those numbers don't count in the certified circulation numbers, which drives ad rates.

Owl Guy, you obviously haven't bought a paper in a long time. Those price increases weren't at all recent.

Thanks Hal, and yes I haven't even thought about buying a paper in about a year, so I guess I assumed that the price increase was part of Operation Rosebudicide (Sorry Rosebud but this allusion is about C Kane.) People I know are cancelling subscriptions right and left.

I haven't had any Orioles coverage in a couple of months, so I'm happy to see the Sun on my doorstep every morning. It's tough to survive just on what they report on baseball in the IHT (Internat'l Herald Tribune).

We still get the hard copy, but I'm reading more and more online because the paper gets here later and later. For those who miss Gregory Kane (I am not among them), you can check out the Examiner online.

My DW said she needed to read a newspaper the worst way, so I re-upped for The Baltimore Sun for another eight weeks. Will look into subscribing to The Washington Post. I think I can get it delivered. Last I looked at The Baltimore Examiner it was even more expensive than The Sun if you didn't live in their free distribution area.

Speaking of the newspaper, was Wednesday the day the blog comments were printed? Did anyone see them? How many were there and which ones were printed?

RiE, look into the NY Times instead. You get Thurs though Sunday, but the Sunday times will take you until Thursday to finish reading it. Also, IMHO the news is less flaming to Marylanders than DC news is.

I do not understand the fassination with the printed word. I believe that in the quest of know-ledge it is any means possible that creates meaning that is most efficient one should accomplish. There seem to be many various radio stations that read news many times each day. More over the television has two or three broadcasting stations in Baltimore that tell you and show you the events of the moment. They also even tell you that it is live, local and late breaking. What more does one person need? News I do believe should be NEW but NEWspapers are old. Perhaps we should call them oldspapers. That is just a joke.

I stopped reading the print edition after I heard that the ink contains synthetic stimulants.

As to the fascination with print, I'm not so concerned with the actual use of paper, but rather what the paper represents. Only a newspaper will allocate the resources to do a story on ground rent, corruption with Mayor Dixon or an analysis on slots. A Tv station won't do this kind of reporting. Do you really think Marty Bass is going to spend weeks tracking down a story on some land deal on the Eastern Shore? Of course not, he's going to spend his time interviewing people at the Royal Farm Store in Hampden about why they buy bread and toilet paper during a snow event.

I stopped reading the print edition after I heard that the ink contains synthetic stimulants.

That's a shallow reason to stop reading a newspaper.

May I proffer a questions to you my good friend Mister Keys? But are newspaper the proper venue for such stories? Perhaps more deep and lengthy stories are best presented in a monthly or weekly magazine scheme. Such that we may ponder their truth in isolation, unabsconded by the surrounding adverts for wash powder and geegaws. Perhap we return to a time where the news of the moment is broadcast like ripples on a pond. There is no need for ephemera to be preserved in printing. It is hubris and most unhealthy. Let the Oriole baseball waft over you and be gone. The future weather is already in the past when it lies dead in print next to your corn flakes and waffle bread. Let most news be like footprints in the sands of your life, step step step into the inter-net and the waves of the radio and telly. Carve in wood only what deserves to be, other wise one creates false gods, false truth out of the rippling of waves.

Hey Bubble Boy - Moops!

It's not Moops it's Moors! Moors! Moors! Moors!

This was supposed to be the Summer of Owl Meat!

Careful Bubble Boy - you know, the spontaenous combustion of Krooks in Bleak House was based upon actual documented incidents.

Moops! Moops! Moops! Moops!

I'm not sure why I would spontaneously combust, but thanks for reminding me of the horror of reading four of Dickens' longest novels in one semester sophomore year. And apparently I retained nothing from them. It's ridiculous to make someone read a book in three weeks that was published in 20 monthly installments. It's just not enjoyable. I digress. Imagine that. Moops would be great Dickens character name.

"reminding me of the horror of reading four of Dickens' longest novels in one semester sophomore year." OMG - I'll put my 3 Faulkner's against your 3 Dicken's any day! Now, that was a hell semester...

I'll put my 3 Faulkner's against your 3 Dicken's any day! Now, that was a hell semester...

The Snopes Trilogy was the reason I became an accountant.

Four Dickens, Joyce.
Bleak House 928 p.
Dombey and Son 1040 p.
Our Mutual Friend 880 p.
Martin Chuzzlewit 752 p.

3600 pages for one three credit English class as fall turns to winter. That's about 14 Faulkner-size novels. Reading Dickens like you're grinding out sausage is not enjoyable. I remember nothing from the experience, except the names of the books. And the dirty grad student who sucked coffee from the plastic lid of her cup. And the heavy ancient wooden seminar table that allowed no hiding or absences. And the sputtering radiator in the basement of Gilman Hall. Or Professor Weirdy-Beardy. And there were Moops everywhere.

"uncle", OMG. You've got me there. But, marching through one Faulkner is no picnic, let alone three in semester. Also, had smokers galore in my class (you could smoke in college back then) giving the classroom the ambience of a bingo hall.

Sure the volume of Dickens is rough, but the temporary mental illness you must have had with back-to-back-to-back Faulkner must have been fun.

So there you have it--OMG is actually a Bluejay.