Mistakes happen, but we keep trying

More than 30 years in the newspaper business has taught me many lessons, not the least of which is, there’s always tomorrow.

The very nature of the hundreds of facts, thousands of key strokes and technological mazes that have to be negotiated, makes it close to a miracle that a newspaper is produced every 24 hours. Making the product perfect is virtually impossible. We work very hard every day to try to do it, and some times we come close. On other days, we just try again.

Monday was such a day.

As announced on the front of the Dec. 7 TV Week, The Enterprise is discontinuing that weekly separate product that was inserted in the Sunday edition. Inadequate advertising support and the fact that so many other, better, options exist for television listings motivated the decision. (Including a link on our Website.) We announced it again, on the front page of the paper, on Sunday, Dec. 14th.

Our alternative, started well in advance of that discontinuation, was to list each day’s programs in the daily pages of The Enterprise along with other entertainment news of interest.

Then, as though some ominous newspaper gremlin had cast a spell upon us, the Monday paper contained the television listings for Sunday’s programs. It didn’t matter that, in checking how the mistake was made, the blame fell on a computer glitch. It didn’t matter that it was only one day. What mattered is that it was a huge mistake that disappointed many of our readers.

We apologize, both for the mistake and the disappointment. We will continue to strive for perfection and hope our readers recognize that sometimes it’s impossible . . . and there's always tomorrow.

The Enterprise has one less angry couple

Say farewell to Leroy and Loretta Lockhorn, the perpetually argumentative married couple who made us raise an eyebrow, smirk, and even laugh on occasion.

They have, for several years, been a part of our features section, but they are no more. Readers will now have to settle for the five Lockhorns panels currently featured in the Sunday comics section.

They’ve been missing from the daily pages for almost a week now and only a handful of readers have called to say they noticed. One reader argued that the single panel cartoon took up very little space, but unfortunately, though space is a major consideration, it isn’t the only consideration. The cartoon also costs money – an investment we have to consider based on our perception of reader interest and our knowledge of other options.

Yes, to some people the angry, lazy, flirtatious, misogynistic husband and the spendthrift, perpetually demanding, bad cook of a wife, were like friends invited into their homes. But it’s time for a change. As I’ve repeated often, newspapers, especially today, are about change.

Imagine a newspaper filled only with Dogpatch, Snuffy Smith, Hi and Lois, Beetle Bailey, Dennis the Menace and Peanuts. Sure, they are all long-time favorites. But what would your life really be without Dilbert, Baby Blues, Zits and Dinette Set? In many cases the original authors of the long-time favorites have died and their drawing pens have been taken up by colleagues or family members. Bright new cartoonists are waiting for a chance to share their talent with a generation of newspaper readers. You might have your favorites, but if we don’t give new choices a chance, you might not realize you have other options.

So, we’re asking you to be patient with us. Our job is to inform and entertain you. We continue to try to do our very best to succeed at that job. Trust us. We’re professionals.

TV listings evolve as market changes

Remember when television programming consisted of three channels that ended their day by playing the Star Spangled Banner before they went to test pattern for a few hours every night?

It wasn’t actually in the dark ages, but rather the early ‘80s as cable television started becoming available in Southeast Texas and 24-hour-a-day programming became the norm rather than the exception.

During those same years, The Enterprise’s weekly TV listings also evolved from a tabloid size booklet, to a 40-plus-page quarter fold product stapled down the spine, back to a tabloid booklet that has been sized down several times based on decreased advertising support for the product.

It’s almost as though when television entertainment options increased, the size of products listing those options decreased.

As of yesterday, The Enterprise’s Sunday TV Week has disappeared completely.

The announcement on the front of Sunday’s TV Week let readers know that The Enterprise will no longer produce a weekly TV listings product.

That doesn’t mean we won’t have information about television programs. Instead we will have daily program listings, along with some specifics about best programming of the day and other entertainment information.

So, if you’d rather pick up your newspaper than fire up your computer or find the right remote, we’ll have what you need. You’ll just get it every day instead of once a week.

Annie offers advice dear to our hearts

Since Monday The Beaumont Enterprise has contained a new column and has been missing one of the old ones.

Dear Abby has been replaced by a column called Annie’s Mailbox.

The concept initially might throw up a wall of resistance and/or cause a reader’s blood pressure to rise, but the change is more superficial than substantial.

Historically, pages of The Beaumont Enterprise contained the Ann Landers column. Dear Abby, written by Ann Landers’ (actually Esther “Eppie” Lederer’s) twin sister Abigail Van Buren (really Pauline Phillips), ran in The Beaumont Journal, the long-time afternoon newspaper.

When The Journal ceased to exist as a daily publication in 1983, the Dear Abby column was discontinued. Then, when Ann Landers died in 2002, Dear Abby seemed to be the most logical replacement advice column.

Problem is, Pauline Phillips, now 90, has long been too incapacitated to actually write the column. Instead, it is authored by her daughter, Jeanne Phillips. Since Ann Landers’ death, her daughter, Margo Howard, also has begun authoring an advice column called Dear Margo.

Annie’s Mailbox, named in honor of the well-known long-time advice columnist, is authored by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar, former editors of the Ann Landers column.

So, we haven’t stopped publishing a popular advice column, we’ve just chosen to publish a different one, which we think features equally qualified authors. It’s just one more example of a necessary change in a constantly changing industry.

One reader has called to say she noticed and she didn’t like it.