Why Did My Newspaper Do That?
I'm always proud to talk about the Times as a local, community newspaper.
With very few exceptions, all of our Page 1 and other news stories each day focus squarely on what's going on in our local communities of Gloucester, Rockport, Manchester and Essex. Our Sports coverage gives top priority to our local high school teams and other local sport news. Our Arts/Entertainment coverage — especially through our featured section each Thursday — doesn't focus on the latest releases from Hollywood, but on the many artistic events happening on and around Cape Ann. And the Times is written, illustrated, edited and designed each day and night right here at our Times offices at 36 Whittemore St.
Similarly, the vast majority of our gloucestertimes.com online material is also produced locally — including the latest feature, the Taste of the Times, that showcases videos of local chefs and restaurateurs crafting dishes from their own recipes. There are, however, features in the Times each day that are decidedly not local — pages of everything from the comics to word puzzles, TV listings, "Dear Abby" and a number of other items.
Where do they come from? Why does your community's newspaper include these outside features?
Well, in my mind, a community newspaper — any kind of newspaper, really — isn't meant solely as a purveyor of hard news and information. It should also provide readers with some quiet entertainment and recreation, and some other education-based challenges. That idea has been behind including comics, crossword puzzles, advice pages and other such features for decades — and they remain popular newspaper features today.
Most are provided by international syndication companies that represent individual cartoonists, writers and artists and market their work. The two biggest are Universal Press Syndicate, which is based in Kansas City and provides features such as "Dear Abby," the Saturday kids Mini-Page, comics and more, and United Media, which is based in Cincinnati and offers, among other goodies, the "Dilbert" and "Peanuts' comic strips.
Some of the syndicated material in the Times has a local focus. The daily TV listings and our weekly TV Spotlight book showcases programs for networks and stations available on Cape Ann. The same goes from the daily weather presentation, which we purchase from AccuWeather, based in State College, Pa. Most of the features, however, are not specific to our area.
A letter from Gloucester or other parts of Cape Ann might, in a blue moon, merit the attention of "Dear Abby" — written these days by Jeanne Phillips, the daughter of founder Abigail Van Buren. But "Crankshaft," "Dilbert" and the old "Peanuts" gang haven't made a swing this way in years. Still, Cape Ann readers enjoy their daily encounters as do readers in other parts of the country. And Phillip Adler's tips for playing Bridge, for example, should work for folks in the Rockport Duplicate Bridge Club, even if Adler is writing from Florida.
In all of these cases, we at the Times simply contract with the features service providers on an annual basis, they deliver the features for your reading pleasure — and, in some cases, provide the full pages to be picked up by our editors here at the Times and slotted into the paper.
Try as we may, we just don't have the staff or expertise to draw up our own local crossword or Wonderword puzzles. And somehow, I suspect a "Dear Ray" column responding to letters about the loves and lives of Cape Anners wouldn't have quite the credibility of "Dear Abby," even if today's Abby isn't the one with which so many of us grew up.
You see, a community newspaper doesn't have to be all about the local hard-news events of the day. It should be fun and entertaining as well — with comics and other feature material from far over the bridge. As always, let me know what you think.
Questions? Comments? Is there a topic you'd like to see addressed in a future column? Contact Times Editor Ray Lamont at 978-283-7000, x3438, or cia e-mail at rlamont@gloucestertimes.com.
