Took me awhile to quantify my reaction, but here goes: I think initially I was just reacting to the different look--the use of a serif typeface in the heds where I'd been used to seeing sans serif all those years, although I guess they started phasing that in a couple years ago. (I breathed an audible sigh of relief when I opened to the Movie Guide page to find that it still looked like it always has--at least one thing hadn't changed.)
However, in reading thru the actual content, it seems like they're giving much more cursory coverage of the subjects they are covering--it's got a much more USA Today feel to it than it once did. Seems as though they're trying to fit as much as possible into a smaller space. And I suspect there are more stories not being covered at all.
However, if it means the paper can weather this storm of recession and emerge alive on the other side, I am willing to make that sacrifice. I am an old-school newspaper reader from way back (i.e. I started reading the Chron before I was 10), and am afraid soon I won't have any other choices for a hard-copy newspaper other than the NYTimes, WSJ, LATimes, and the aforementioned USA Today (and I use the term newspaper loosely in its case).
that recent graphic makeover happened just a couple weeks ago, and most people who wrote in said they didn't like it. But people don't like change typically, so this wasn't a surprise. Also, people are more likely to complain than give compliments. (People really enjoy being able to say "you suck even more now" thanks to the anonymity provided by the interwebs.)
but thanks for the comments. I'll acknowledge that it does have a more "USA Today" look in some ways and in bits and pieces.
The capsule reads -- short single paragraph items -- sort of remind folks of that paper, but the Chron has featured various section digests for a long time -- it's just that now those digest items are broken out with a graphic treatment.
As the paper loses more journalists and editors, new coverage will suffer, so it's not a stretch to say that some things are not being covered -- there's just not enough resources to do so.
