Newspapers don't control coupon content

Although a fair number of people want to voice complaints about what goes into their daily newspaper, a great many readers give us way too much credit when it comes to complete control of the content of their paper.

-- Several readers called this week to complain about the lack of quality and quantity of coupons inserted in their Sunday newspaper. Their underlying message was that we needed to do a better job of getting the “good” coupons in the paper.

That would be great — if it worked that way. Coupons, like the other inserts in your Sunday newspaper, are advertisements. Advertisers decide which newspapers they want to place which coupons in and pay the newspapers to include the coupons in their publications. Companies that coordinate that placement are major players in the industry and make their decisions based on factors such as market penetration and demographics.

We can’t just print up a bunch of coupons and put them in the paper. Nor can we just make a call and tell the companies our readers would like more coupons.

-- Advertising plays an important role in newspaper economics. People who subscribe to the paper or drop their quarters in the slot of a paper rack every day are, primarily, paying the cost of delivery to their doorstep or their paper box.

The reporters, the telephones, the computers and the electric bill — the things that have to be paid in order to create the newspaper — are paid with advertising revenue. Some of the products we have discontinued were dropped because of insufficient advertising support. Reduced advertising expenditures also have made your newspaper a slimmer volume than in past years.

A portion of the change is due to the current economic climate, no doubt, but some also can be attributed simply to changes in the industry in general.

-- A few callers wanted to say they don’t like recent changes to our paper because the type is now lighter and smaller, which makes it difficult for them to read. One caller even told me he had samples of “before” and “after” papers and that, holding them side-by-side, they were different.

I will acknowledge that sometimes readers get a less than perfectly printed copy of the paper that might have dark ink smudges, so it stands to reason that sometimes they get copies where the type might be light. That’s not supposed to happen, but realistically, sometimes it does.

But we haven’t changed the type size. I swear.

Sometimes the corrections run in smaller type; the current comic layout makes the words in the “Dinette Set” panel slightly smaller; sports agate is and always will be small. The rest of the type is unchanged.

Really.

-- The appearance of this column on page 2A Tuesdays has fueled a surge in calls and e-mails to the Reader Representative.

That's certainly fine -- feel free to call or e-mail. I speak for the paper, but I also speak up for you.

ONE NOTE: This column, as originally written, said feel free to shoot me an e-mail or call. An edited version, which unfortunately made the print edition, said "feel to shoot, to call, or to e-mail." Please no shooting. We can talk things out!