Yet One More Fort Worth Star-Telegram Basher

Currently 65% of my thousands of readers want me to continue bashing the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Lord knows it deserves it. And Lord knows I love to be obliging. But sometimes I am just not able to muster a good healthy level of umbrage over things that are very umbrage-worthy.

So, today I will use a Guest Star-Telegram Basher. Before I get to that, I must tell you that awhile back the Startlegram (misspelling intended, that's what locals often call this paper) had a makeover to supposedly improve the paper's readability. This changed the look of the paper and made it more in line with its content. As in it now it both looks and reads like a very small town newspaper, not the newspaper of record of a city of almost 700,000 people.

And then a few months ago, as the Startlegram continued to bleed money, and lose subscribers, they did a cost cutting move. They cut back on features, axed columns and fired employees, including their liaison with their readers, David House. These moves made the paper even thinner and even faster to read. As in there is much less to read.

And so, in today's Startlegram, in a Letter to the Editor, a reader from Arlington voiced his disdain regarding the Startlegram's plummeting quality.

Here is that letter-----

Voice of Reason Lost

I think the Star-Telegram has a death wish.

First, the management dumbed down and tarted up the format so that it looks like the My Weekly Reader that I read in elementary school.

Then, in an apparent effort to attract young readers, it emasculated the opinions section and changed another section heading from “Business” to “Work and Money.” Why not change from “Sports” to “Fun and Games”?

I find myself more and more reading opinions on The New York Times’ Web site. I didn’t think of doing that before the “new and improved” Star-Telegram debuted.

You’ve offended serious readers and haven’t attracted new, young readers. So what do you do when circulation nose-dives? Cut payroll costs.

This resulted in the final blow to mature, serious readers: Management, in an effort to appease the bean-counters, terminated several senior staff members, notably ombudsman David House.

David was a loyal supporter of the Star-Telegram. I had many conversations with him about the direction that the paper was taking, and he always defended management’s decisions. Too bad the loyalty didn’t cut both ways.

His was a voice of reason and one to whom many readers expressed their concerns. He was a good reader advocate and will be sorely missed by readers who actually read the paper.

— Brian Fels, Arlington