majie963

I’ve talked to a lot of people and answered a lot of e-mailsin the last two days about the elimination of the daily TVlistings. Yes, my ears are ringing. Most people understand that itwasn’t my decision (it wasn’t, and I’m sad aboutit), but they’re frustrated and angry over the?loss of afeature they’ve counted on for years. And hey, I looked atthose grids every day too, just to make sure I hadn’tforgotten something I needed to watch that night.

The simple reason for the change is that the economy is bad, manybusinesses, including newspapers, are suffering, and the price ofnewsprint is soaring. As editor Arnie Robbins explained in notes toreaders, many of the changes were intended to save newsprint— the TV listings alone took up almost a full page a day.

Printed TV listings are, I fear, a dinosaur. Fewer and fewer peopleuse them, relying instead on interactive on-screen guides,customizable online listings or the old click-around method. ThePost-Dispatch weekly TV magazine, which may have been on yourcoffee table as long as you can remember, has been cut way back andis now included only in papers delivered to subscribers. Even theiconic TV Guide magazine, which?sells for?$3.99 a week, hascomparatively few listings these days.