The Salem News folks recently redesigned the format so it's almost a tabloid -- a long, skinny tabloid. And they added a "screamer" headline on Page 1 (whatever the Big Story of the day is, is placed in the right-hand column with a huge bold-type header). It's okay, but there are only so many ways you can design a newspaper. It should always be easy to handle and page-turn, easy to fold, and easy for the eye to follow. Especially the eyes of older readers, who comprise, I suspect, the majority of Salem News subscribers. It would be nice to have a slightly larger type/font size for news and bulletin board items, but the publisher needs to save ink and paper, so it ain't gonna happen. To the SN's credit, they do make the editorial pages' layout cleaner and easy to follow, but maybe that's so not even one older set of eyes will miss the publisher/corporation's opinion on things. ;-)
There is just enough local news (I live in Salem) to make it readable; if I want real "Salem News," I get a copy of the weekly Salem Gazette from one of the freebie boxes around the city. The AP filler news and feature items have all been posted on the Internet news sites days before the SN publishes them, but we know that this is a sign of the times.
The best thing about the paper is the Police blotter (I happen to like the humor in the non-serious-crime items, despite what other reviewers might say), Dear Abby and the comics, though I am REALLY PISSED that "For Better Or For Worse" was dumped, unannounced, and replaced by the vapid "Dustin" strip. What the hell is up with that? Intelligent, creative, perceptive, original and genuinely full of real-life humor, Lynn Johnston's strip is far superior to the empty-headed, gag-type, unfunny crap that passes for "comic strips" that increasingly take the place of good stuff. Was "FBOFW" too expensive for the SN? I would like an explanation!
Salem News (I still call it the Salem Evening News; old habits...) is a small-town local paper published by a big-ass corporation with headquarters in another state. As there are not many small, family-owned newspapers left, this should be no surprise. But, the reporters and editors are local yokels, and they write about local things, so except perhaps for the editorial influence of a "foreign" owner reaching its corporate fingers out into our little community, at least we have local people writing for local people. read more
