Winston-Salem Journal editor Carl Crothers discusses changes to the paper’s editorial page. I read Crothers’ piece with an open mind and it frankly would be laughable if it didn’t reflect the sheer desperation of someone trying to sell a product that is quickly outliving its usefulness.
For starters, the ‘Letters to the Editor’ section is now the ‘Reader’s Forum.’ And if you submit the best letter to the ‘Reader’s Forum,’ you’re named ‘Correspondent of the Week’ and have your letter showcased –complete with photograph —- on the Sunday editorial page. But wait —- it gets better — the ‘big winner’ (as Crothers puts it) also gets a nice prize! And the really beautiful part of all this is the word limit has been increased to 250, so you get another whole 50 words to make your case while striving to become ‘Correspondent of the Week.’
How nice of the Journal to give up the space in order to reward its readers. As for for the editorial page’s “new, modern” design:
One element of the new page design crafted by our talented design desk team leader, Richard Boyd, is an expanded masthead. That’s the box on the editorial page that lists the names of the newspaper’s publisher and key executives. We moved it to the bottom of the page, expanded the list of names and added a quote from the founders of the newspaper.
Yippee!
What can I say, you either laugh or you cry.
