Shrinking the comics with a vengeance

[dvandom]

When I pulled out the comics section of today's Sunday edition of the Kansas City Star, it looked a little odd. I shrugged, pulled off the inevitable Lasik ad flap, and started reading. Then I opened it up and realized that the middle page was missing. And most of the strips inside were tiny. Then I realized what was wrong with the shape of the section too...it was more than an inch narrower.

The Star went from 6 pages of comics to 4 and made the pages themselves smaller. At least three comics got dropped that I noticed, none added. Yowch. And this follows a recent price hike for anyone buying the paper outside of the KC five county area, too.

Looks like next week I start looking for a possible replacement Sunday paper (the local paper's Sunday edition has Monday's comics, and there's no Saturday paper, so I have to buy a different paper to get Sunday comics...of course, Opus is about the only one I can't get online, but I like having the coupons and crossword too).

Comments

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Yup, shrinking the web (http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/content/p1472_c1390.cfm) is the new black, and cutting content -- and personnel -- is the only way they can see of raising the bottom line in an age of shrinking revenues. Spend less, not earn more. Innovation? Meh.

[skyjammer.livejournal.com]

Pssst.... (http://www.berkeleybreathed.com/images/thisweekstrip.jpg) I didn't think it was a few weeks behind, but keep an eye this...

[kateshort.livejournal.com]

Cutting paper width can be a good thing, but it needs to be applied judiciously. There isn't necessarily the need to cut content if they're smart about how they do things.

[j-anderson123.livejournal.com]

I don't even buy the newspaper anymore, and the only comics I bother reading online are the Perry Bible Fellowship stuff.

A lot of comic companies are also putitng out TPB editions in tiny manga-sized books now... comics not meant to be read at manga size.