Odds and Trends

-- It was almost like Tim Collie (who just won an NABJ award) and the Sun-Sentinel gave an answer to John DeGroot's apocalyptic view of the population changes in this Sunday's newspaper. Not that it was a pollyanna approach; the piece addresses issues involving sprawl, flight, and the lack of "connectedness" caused by the population shifts. But it clearly has a hopeful side, including a bit about the energy that immigrants bring to the place.

-- Hulk Hogan keeps making publicity he clearly craves, but in all the worst ways (I swear I remember he had a car stolen, too, but couldn't find anything on it).

-- This from Pulp reader Ted Fitzgerald of Margate:

"Love your blog, I agree with a lot of what you have said about the Sun-Sentinel. Is it just me, or have I a noticed a tremendous increase in the ads in section 1 of the SS? Last Monday's paper was like a mail order catalog. Is this just another part of the "Transformative Change"? I will still get the paper just for the crossword puzzle, Soduko and Tom Jicha."

Well, this morning I did a little counting and found that about 21.5 of the front section's 32 pages was ads. I don't know what the industry standards are, but that's definitely a high ratio. It does indeed seem to bode well for the newspaper's goal of beefing up ads while whittling down the news, though.