Slideshows

We've started something new, and I'd love some feedback from readers.

To check it out, go back to the Tracy Press home page and click on "Slideshows" about halfway down on the far-left column. That will take you to our very first slideshow. Click on the red "West Building Demolition" link, and you'll see "End of an Era," photos that Glenn Moore shot on Oct. 21 and 22 at Tracy High School, when the old West Building saw its final days. To start the slideshow, press the small arrow near the far-left bottom corner of the photo.

We plan to shoot the Halloween parade on Saturday for another show and, this time, we'll use audio, too. So watch for that in the next few days.

Let me know what you think!

Editor's Notes column

Here's what's running in Saturday's Tracy Press:

Seeing stars again

The Voice pages are packed during election season, and bringing up a topic not related to the races is asking for trouble right now.

But this is nothing compared to what happened when I thought the newspaper could exist without its daily horoscope.

The women who answer our phones at the Tracy Press have now tallied 50 calls of complaint — sometimes howling diatribes — about the disappearance of the daily prediction of events. Several weeks ago, in an effort to gain space for news stories, we dropped one comics page, which had been home to the signs of the zodiac. We moved some puzzles to the first pages of classifieds and added a weekly horoscope.

Who knew that a daily dose of astrology is more important to some readers than the police blotter or the obituaries or — imagine this — the latest developer agreement in town? Not me.

One woman, a Capricorn, explained that her daily habit is really a necessity. When she read her weekly horoscope in the Tracy Press this week, it left her defeated. It said, “News you will receive hits you very hard, Capricorn. But there is nothing you can do to change the situation, so you just have to work through it.”

Now she has to wait a week before she gets another message, when she’d really like some advice for how to get through the next few days of — something bad.

Then there was the woman who stopped in our office after West High’s homecoming parade Friday to ask if there was a chance the horoscope would be in today’s paper. The last one she’d read had said her relationship would fizzle — and it did — and now she wants to know what’s coming next.

For Cindy, whose last name will go unmentioned because she reads the paper when she’s supposed to be working for one of the largest employers in town, the horoscope is her morning ritual.

“We just have a nice little chitchat about our horoscopes in our department before we start our day,” she writes, using her work e-mail. “It wakes us up, and we move on.”

One of the women in her office says she knows how to deal with her husband after she reads her horoscope. Another says she just likes to be entertained.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but by the end of October in an election year, politics ceases to be entertaining to me. I’m tired of the TV ads, the mailbox junk, the survey calls and the computerized messages left on my answering machine.

I could really use a horoscope to read today. Here’s what I’m imagining I’ll find: “You could make at least 50 readers happy today.”

So here you go. If you really want to know what’s happening, skip over the news and go directly to Page 35.

• Cheri Matthews, editor of the Tracy Press, can be reached by phone (830-4201) e-mail (cherim@tracypress.com) or blog (www.editor-matthews.blogspot.com).

More horo-calls

Just got this update on the horoscope calls:

Here's an update on the "tally" marks. We started a new sheet when we gave you the one last week. So the second sheet was started on 10/10/06, and as of today at 5:01p.m., you may add 13 more readers who miss the horoscope.

Also, I've fixed the "comment" button on this posting, so comment away!

Astrological musings

The women who answer our phones have tallied 33 calls of complaint that the daily horoscope has disappeared from the paper. Who knows how many others are unable to face their days without the daily dose of astrology?

But I'm learning from the comments that have drifted upstairs that the daily horoscope isn't a necessity of life. It's just a harmless habit, one that lots of folks enjoy.

Cindy, whose last name will go unmentioned because she reads her horoscope when she's supposed to be working for one of the largest employers in town, said the horoscope is her morning ritual.

"We just have a nice little chitchat in our department before we start our day, and it wakes us up, and we move on," she writes, using her work e-mail.

One of the women in her office says she knows how to deal with her husband after she reads her horoscope. Another says she just likes to be entertained.

I don't suppose the news plays the same role as a useful and amusing horoscope.

Horoscope homesickness

It's been two weeks since we dropped the daily horoscope from the Tracy Press. We dropped several other features at the same time to make more room for news, and we added a weekly horoscope, which runs in classifieds on Tuesdays. But it's the daily horoscope that's generated the most calls.

I plan to take a close look this week at those responses. I have to admit surprise. At the risk of alienating dedicated readers, I'll admit that I consider the horoscope to be space-filler. I believe in all sorts of things, from UFOs to global warming, but I don't give credence to horoscope writers who tell me that I'll have unexpected good luck today or that I need to exercise discretion. They say I'm a sensitive but tough Taurus. Duh! Isn't everybody?

I'd like to hear directly from daily astrology readers. Do you miss Horoscopes by Holiday? Was it the first place you turned in the newspaper? Should we bring it back?

Is a daily newspaper necessary?

Perhaps you've considered that question, especially if you're a longtime reader of the Tracy Press. Looking at the history of our paper, it's gone from being a weekly to three days a week, from three to five days, then six and seven days a week, back to six and finally to five days a week, which is our publishing schedule in 2006.

The main reason for dropping the Monday paper last year, of course, was financial. Newspaper operations are expensive ones, and for us, a family paper, Monday advertising revenues weren't coming close to covering the costs of delivering on those days. Plus, we noticed that a considerable number of home subscribers weren't picking up their newspapers on Monday mornings.

Our publishing schedule is a constant topic of conversation for us. That's why I found a story in this week's Editor and Publisher (subscriber-only — sorry!) magazine to be so interesting. It gives credit to Hazel Reinhardt of Media Management Center for suggesting that small-market newspapers would be better off publishing five or six days a week instead of seven. That was considered heresay in the 1990s, the article says. But seven-day publishing is losing favor, as more and more papers are looking at dropping Monday and even Tuesday papers.

Meanwhile, I wouldn't have time to blog on a Sunday, as I'm doing today, if I had a Monday paper to put out. Instead, I'll take the day off (what a concept!) and update the Monday Web site later this evening.

Back to blogging

Blogging is a lot like running a newspaper. Every day starts with a blank slate, and every night, ink meets paper, while the presses roll out a new edition. And if the newspaper doesn't make it to every front doorstep, the phones ring wildly the next morning.

WHERE'S MY TRACY PRESS?

Wait.
It's not the same with my blog.
I didn't update my Editor's Notes blog for two months, and I got, maybe, two comments.

But I'm back now, with new blogging software and a slightly new look. I even went to a seminar on "Figuring Out Blogs and Whatever's Next" at the USC's Annenberg School of Journalism. And I'm going to put what I learned to use.

I like this forum, with its potential of connecting with readers. So thanks for visiting. Feel free to comment. And come back often!

- Cheri