Merry Christmas From The Dallas Morning News

This morning, sometime after 6, I got my first copy of The Dallas Morning News. My first Christmas present of the day.

It'd been a bit bumpy prior to the arrival of the first paper. I was thinking I'd likely be asking for my money back before I ever got a paper.

When I was convinced on Saturday to subscribe I was told delivery would start on Thursday, as in tomorrow. But then I got called by The Dallas Morning News customer service center on Tuesday and asked if I was getting my paper on time.

I told the caller that delivery wasn't supposed to start til Thursday. She told me, no, it was supposed to have started on Sunday.

I told her I've not seen any papers. She read me my address. They had it wrong. I gave her the correct address. She said delivery would start on Wednesday.

Wednesday came. No paper. So, I called the number I'd been given to call if a paper didn't show up. After going through a sophisticated phone tree I got a real person, explained the problem. And once more found they had the address wrong. Corrected it again. Was told delivery would start this morning and credit would be applied to the missing days.

So, I finally got a paper after way too much interaction, including, what I assume is my delivery guy, calling hours after I'd called customer service, to ask what my address was. At that point I sort of figured I was dealing with massive incompetence, worse than the Star-Telegram, and that I'd never see a paper.

Speaking of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. I know I can't make any final conclusion based on reading one day, and that day being Christmas, about The Dallas Morning News. But, based on just this one day, The Dallas Morning News is HUGELY better than the Star-Telegram. It took me twice as long to read as the Star-Telegram's biggest day, that being Sunday. The Dallas Morning News has WAY more content. WAY more local stories. A lot more color pictures. More detailed Weather Page. The type on Doonesbury is big enough to read without squinting.

The Dallas Morning News, at least today, was like reading the Seattle P-I. It is a Big City newspaper. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram is not Big City worthy. It's a small town paper. A bad small town paper. That I'm well rid of.