The “Incredible Shrinking San Diego Union-Tribune” has been the topic of a blog or two of mine in the past, although not recently. The reasons for the newspaper’s reduction in size have become pretty well known, so no new news is not news…or something like that.
Yet, while relaxing over the holiday weekend, it did occur to me to take a look at the size of the Sunday edition of the U-T, just as a reference point, since the new management has now settled in, with another round of staff cuts following a few weeks ago. Picking it up, sans advertising inserts, it felt about the same weight as when I had noted several months ago the paper had dwindled to 66 pages or so from about twice that size, if one doesn’t count the classifieds.
But, there on the front page, under the index was the reference: 15 sections; 136 pages. Really?
I decided to count the pages myself, so proceeded to place the sections in order and commenced…
Section A: World, National, State, Region News / Business – 16 pages
Section B: Our Region (Local) / Dialog (Opinion) – 8 pages
Section C: Uhhh, hmmm…there is no Section C.
Section D: Sports – 8 pages
Section E: Arts – 8 pages
Section F: Darn, I’m not finding this section either.
Section G: Passages – 8 pages
Section H: Also nowhere to be found.
Section I: Travel – 4 pages
Section J: Missing in action…meaning literally missing, not the name of the section.
Section K: Classifieds / Real Estate– 24 pages (I’ll even be fair and count the classifieds this time.)
That’s 76 pages, is it not?
The number of pages aside for a moment, of the 11 supposed sections listed above, in my home-delivered addition four of them don’t even exist sequentially, kind of like a bunch of thirteenth floors. Very mysterious, if not superstitious.
Someone didn’t just steal my paper, they stole parts of my paper!
I waited until I got to the office this morning to look at another copy of the Sunday edition. Wouldn’t you know it, the culprit not only visited my house and removed Sections C, F, H and J from the newspaper while it sat in my driveway, but did it to my office-delivered edition as well! What are the chances?
Okay, seriously, I’ll buy that perhaps the U-T is counting Business and Dialog, which used to be clearly separate, as “official” sections. Maybe even the Comics and Parade Magazine count for another two. Adding those additional four to the supposed sections listed above does get you to the 15 noted on the front page, until you subtract the four non-existent “ghost” sections. Still eleven.
What’s more, even adding the 22 pages of Comics and Parade still only gets the paper up to 98 pages, not the 136 touted under the fold.
Surely, surely, the news staff isn’t counting the separate Big 5, Ortho Mattress and Vons ads, commonly known as inserts, in the page or section total? Well, come to think of it, they are separate "sections" and these ads in particular are certainly designed and printed to be the same width and height as the paper’s other sections. If the UT is counting them as "pages," this could be a first in the newspaper business. Journalism history in the making.
Maybe the additional regular pile of insert ads makes the paper 136 pages. Another first. But, I wouldn’t know. They already went into the recycling.