Comments on: Who moved my puzzles?

By: Angie Young

Angie Young — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 07:50:43 +0000

I just came back from a trip abroad and discovered my favorite strips are gone.

Why did you remove Opus, Foxtrot, and Adam@Home and kept the coma-inducing strips such as Garfield, For Better or Worse, Doonsbury, Cathy, and the new mindless drivel–Secret Asian Man?? Please dump those awful strips.

I know a newspaper can only do so much but reducing most of the Sunday comics to four pages (if we’re lucky) and converting the other pages into detestable ads is pushing it. Before this week, my husband and I would walk down to the local 7-11, purchase decaf coffee and a Sunday Mercury Newspaper. Now, that’s no longer the case. Unless we get our Opus and other pals back.

Thanks!

By: Disappointed - Opus responds

Disappointed - Opus responds — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 20:40:01 +0000

I sent a copy of my earlier post to Berkeley Breathed. Here is his reply:

Got your letter. Grateful thanks for your support. Newspapers are going to their goodnight, I fear, and hence, retreating to the comfort of the banal and boring. Good that we make noise as they do this.

Best,

Berkeley Breathed

By: Disappointed

Disappointed — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 22:12:49 +0000

This morning, for the first time, I can truly say there was nothing in the Sunday paper of interest to me. The final straw was the loss of “Opus.”

Does that sound trite? I get news online from dozens of sources throughout the day. I read the Wall Street Journal print edition Monday through Saturday. The New Yorker is consumed cover to cover. Last night, I watched a DVD documentary on Iraq. When I shuffled out the front door in my bathrobe and slippers this morning, I expected to return with a hefty edition of the Sunday paper assembled through smart judgments from seasoned editors that included in-depth reporting of current national and international news, basic reporting of local news, thoughtful commentary and opinions, perspective and context on issues and on-going news stories, well-written columns and engaging and entertaining comics.

Instead, I now realize you have reduced content and quality in almost every section of your paper. It has been a slow decline. It took the sudden loss of Opus and my other Sunday comics favorites to finally break me of my Mercury News habit.

Thank you for your attention.

By: Mary Phillips

Mary Phillips — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 10:03:10 +0000

Bring back Opus to the Sunday comics. I won’t go online to read it even though Opus is extremely clever.
I’ve subscribed for 44 years. The paper is now almost as small as a community paper..nothing much of interest. We need more columnists with thoughtful articles to expand the brief information we get on TV or the internet. More in-depth investigative articles, please. Also, if information appears in a wire service, don’t wait 2 days before you print it in the paper. You always seem to have a time lag compared to the other US papers I read when I travel the country. (And they have 2 crossword puzzles that are easy to find!)
I read a paper for information and for the enlightenment of interesting ideas. I can take 3 very pleasurable hours to read the International Herald Tribune; your paper I read in 20 minutes. I’ll probably keep subscribing because my husband likes to wake up with the daily sudoku, but I might have to subscribe to something more substantial to keep my mind alive.

By: abconnect » Comment on Who moved my puzzles? by Rich Newton

abconnect » Comment on Who moved my puzzles? by Rich Newton — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 05:49:49 +0000

[…] here for […]

By: David Hindin, Sunnyvale

David Hindin, Sunnyvale — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:43:49 +0000

“Secret Asian Men” (who found this loser?) , “Baldo”, “Get Fuzzy”, “Brewster Rocket”, “Pearls before Swine” and “Rhymes with Orange” get Sunday space? “Mallard Filmore” (Victor Davis Hanson for the reading impaired) doesn’t make the cut? Finally, a polite request for the return of “Rex Morgan”, “Foxtrot”, “Jump Start” and “Opus” on Sunday.

I was believing your lame cost saving story till I stumbled on the ad for MYCOMICSPAGE.COM (” It’s just $11.95 a year!”) buried in one of the online strips.

By: Frustrated Mercury subscriber

Frustrated Mercury subscriber — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 03:31:14 +0000

One of the reasons I put up with the Mercury News and its poor treatment of individuals like Colleen Wilcox was the consistency of being able to find the comics I have loved for years. But today was different: Foxtrot, Adam@home were missing as was Rex Morgan. This is one of the main reasons I subscribed to the Merc. I want to open the paper and read my comics. In place of the comics previously named were several recent additions. Who determines which comics remained? Thanks for assuming we all want to hear tech news/ humor constantly. You know what happens when one assumes?

By: Ken Koll

Ken Koll — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 01:54:12 +0000

Cheap! Stupid! Short Sighted!

That’s what I think of your decision to cut back on the Sunday Comics.

Sunday comics are a vibrant art form and an American Tradition. They are one of the highlights of my Sunday morning. They help offset the effort required to dig through the pounds of advertising (talk about wasted paper).

Even more ridiculous is your attempt to frame this cheesy cost cutting measure as driven by environmental concerns. (“We will reduce our paper consumption by cutting the color comics from six pages to four”) What total BS. You want to save paper? Did we really need a 2/3 page picture of a man with knife & fork to illustrate the article on venture funding, or the 3/4 page picture of the Chicago skyline on the front of the travel section, or the huge picture of the Cirque performers on the lifestyle section? (Oh I forgot, the Cirque is a big advertiser).

Do you really think your readers are that stupid? (apparently so). Cutting the comics back is just another example of what happens when an excellent local paper is sold to out of town investors. And you wonder why readership is down.

Kenneth Koll
Aptos , CA
25+ year subscriber to the Mercury News

By: Matt Sorensen

Matt Sorensen — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 01:30:34 +0000

I have loved reading the comics in the Mercury for a very long time now. But the constant changes, reducing the selection on Sunday, and the poor comics now in your pages mean I am seriously consider looking elsewhere. As long as your actions are making me want to look to the internet for comics, I certainly will not be giving your website my traffic.

By: frank veloz

frank veloz — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 23:21:06 +0000

You should’nt mess with the comics. Opus is my morning sanity check. Also, when you encourage readers to look on-line for something like a comic strip, you are going down a slippery slope. You are leading your readers to read the whole paper- or someone else’s on line.