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See ya in the funny papers? Not if they're all squashed and hard to read like in the Globe

Gary C., one of the Globe's dwindling number of print readers, reports a comics massacre at the paper.

Anyone notice that the Boston Globe butchered their comics section, dropping it from two pages to just one? Even the remaining comics (you dropped Zippy?) are squished and distorted. Boo!

Dan Kennedy reports the Globe dropped 11 of its 23 comics - and Soduku and Jumble.

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Comments

I love reading the comics. It’s the dessert of reading the paper, so losing 11 strips annoys me to no end.

But here’s the most annoying thing. Of the 12 strips left, two have been on repeats for years. Is there really an audience that wants to follow B.D. and Boopsie’s marital troubles from 1991?

I don’t see how this is a good move.

But it should be noted that the Soduku has merely been moved. I think they want to send people on scavenger hunts for the puzzle.

Perhaps I should be rethinking my subscription.

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The comics they got rid of were probably not appropriate according to Globe decision makers.

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What does that even mean?

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They didn't want to pay for the rights for the few who subscribe to the print edition.

I would mourn the loss of zippy in print but I can't remember the last time I read the globe not on a screen.

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We did intense client survey and discovered that my friends just read important things like Cathy, UHUB and do
Soul Cycle and their nails.

Nobody has time to read 23 comics AND all the genius spelling bee champions on Uhub.

#TimesUp
#UHUB
#soulcycle

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This is one of the hackiest, most poorly executed joke accounts I've ever seen on the internet. I can't even figure out what the butt of the joke is supposed to be most of the time.

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I need to fit it into my reading routine here, though, so I envision it being narrated by Judy Tenuta in a velour tracksuit.

It helps. It does not explain anything. It just helps.

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They keep mailing me offers for 75% off home delivery and the comics pages were actually one of the features I read daily (when purchasing on a newsstand).

Now, is it worth it...

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I stopped depending on the papers for comic strips years ago.

One of the major syndicates - you can find their strips same-day at gocomics.com

The other - King features, I think - has a limited or delayed-access archive for free access (last time I checked it - years ago). I'm able to get their strips that I want same-day, without a paywall, by using the Seattle Post-Intelligencer website - seattlepi.com

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Bring back Ask the Globe.

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We've been bitching about the comments for 40 years. Remember the great poaching by the Herald, when Murdoch bought it and we lost Sally Forth, Fred Bassett, etc.?

Yup, there's the internet now. Print readers, deal with it. The Globe is right to stop pandering to them.

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Which part of the paper doesn't that apply to?

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Since there's nowhere and no one to complain to at the Globe, here goes:

Why does the Globe continue to run old stories, like the hiker lost in New Hampshire? Or Whitey Bulger being sent to sent to solitary? What's wrong with their posting algorithm? What's next, the Kennedy assassination? Dewey beats Truman?

Where's their copy editing? And why do they keep delivering paper inserts to those of us who are digital only? Why does Metro run national stories? And why do they post Dan Shaughnessy columns for four days in a row? Finally, why do they print every press release that Bob Kraft sends them? "Kraft gives away two turkeys." "Kraft hosts three veterans." Kraft holds Birthday Bash for himself."

Thank you for listening.

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This is just a guess, by somebody as annoyed as you to see the same things on the home page day after day, sometimes week after week ...

The Globe realizes the home page is no longer the first stop for many of its online readers - who increasingly get to stories via links from various social-media networks, e-mail referrals and the like without ever seeing the home page (it's part of the great migration towards "disintermediation," where people get a firehose of news stuff coming at them and don't always know the source; which sucks if you have a brand, but what are you gonna do?).

If that's what's happening (the Globe doesn't share its story metrics with me), keeping evergreen stuff on the home page makes sense for those odd times somebody does land there - if they're no longer coming every day, keep the good stuff there for them to see when they do finally show up. But, yes, it sucks if you still go to the home page and just want to see what's happening right this minute (me? I can't stand how their "Metro" section is so far down the page, but I'm parochial that way).

As for Kraft stuff, well, have you noticed how many Giselle Budchen stories they run - even if nobody copy edits them? The Globe must have some data to suggest New Englanders can't get enough Patriots and quasi-Patriots stuff.

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This happens every few weeks, so it's not surprising that the Globe continues to publish these articles whenever it happens. If the articles persuade future hikers to take better precautions, they have served their purpose.

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https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2016/08/24/when-you-find-body-the-l...

The above story has run dozens of times since first published 2 1/2 years ago.

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Do they keep printing this old story it in the paper every few months? If so, I have not noticed it.

If you search BostonGlobe.com for: New Hampshire lost hiker
you will find dozens of articles.

This is the most recent such story I can recall, published on December 18.

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Front page today and when I read it I thought it was really strange to put that up there again.

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Though there were a few follow up articles.

Have you ever read the Globe in print form?

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Why does the Globe continue to run old stories

....

With the print medium, every story is automatically an old story. By the time anything gets printed, delivered, and read, it's nearly a day old at the least.

Go to an internet news site, and it's almost instantaneous.

I don't know why anyone reads printed news anymore. It isn't even news.

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at least they seem to have stopped with the breathless Tom and Gisele stories. They also seem to have slowed way down on the usual "Gronk is so wacky and good-hearted" pieces.

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Who are top executives of The Boston Globe?...

So far what turned up is a Staff List https://www.bostonglobe.com/tools/help/stafflist

and 2012 Masthead at https://thetruthaboutplas.com/2012/07/24/boston-globe-editorial-blasts-g...

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I've been looking for the rest of the comics for several days and today sought a link to tell the Globe. Guess that's not gonna happen. So much of life is "spot on" in the comics...someday may do a thesis on it. Will miss having all in one place....

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Recall the Star-Ledger In NJ did same thing about 7-8 years ago and was forced by reader backlash to reinstate dropped comics/ 2nd page of them

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... and was told that a reader survey (no details) showed that most readers wanted a smaller comics section. Pretty laughable claim.

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I'm thinking the actual print paper is something that mostly older people are going to enjoy (40+ I'm guessing). Hopefully they took that into consideration and what I'm assuming was an online survey anyway!

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I'm mostly older & have had a subscription for decades (my whole life, if you count my parents' subscription). I sure didn't see any survey.
I know the day is coming when I won't be able to read the paper with my breakfast. I'll be sad.

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... or, if there was a survey, it was limited to the Henry family (or something like that). We could find nothing online that suggested (or even hinted) that the Globe conducted any recent comics section survey.

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The Globe used to send me surveys frequently about changes to the paper. They disbanded that several years ago and I definitely didn't see anything on their Facebook page or anywhere.

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I've calmed down a bit since yesterday, but this is really a blow to me. I really enjoy reading the paper each day; section 1 online during lunch and the rest at home on paper in the evening. As others have said, it's like frosting on the cake (the best part) and a refreshing, positive break from the the rest of the depressing news. I started reading the paper as a kid by reading the comics and later Ann Landers and later the sports page etc. You don't start reading about the news of the world at age 8, you have to ease in.

Lastly, if they must cut, then respect the quality of what you are printing. Today's "Curtis" rerun (from 2004!) is so distorted that the characters don't look like themselves. You know when people insert photos into a document and then stretch it up or down? That's what the Globe is doing to squeeze everything in. Terrible.

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I learned to read by reading the comics in the Globe. Every evening, beginning when I was around four or five, I would to ask my grandmother (who lived in our house for the last 20 years of her life) for her copy of that day's Globe because I liked reading the comics -they were easy to make out, and the illustrations helped a lot. Within a few years I was on to news briefs and articles, letters and then Op-Ed and have been an almost-daily reader of the Globe since (in recent years, it's been via the electronic Globe Reader version, which is basically an interactive pdf of the print copy). This is a shame and a huge disservice to the readership.

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... but presenting much of what remains in an ugly and distorted form shows outright contempt for their paper's readers.

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And there's *no* reason to squash the comics like that.

It would have saved MORE space and made the comics MORE readable to shrink them but preserve the aspect ratio.

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Tucked in the bottom of page 2 of the Globe today, where they print their errors, the Globe noted that they see how people are pissed at the comics issue and invite people to tell them which comics they want to keep.

e-mail [email protected].

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I LOVE the Funny Pages. Please bring back the entire two pates and the jumble.

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(I love the stupid jumble, but still, a jumble crossword is not the hardest thing in the world.)

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... but not the usually quite enjoyable Jump Start and the weird (but I find it interesting) Zippy. OTOH, the dull and dreadful (maybe funny long, long ago -- but not now) Adam@home IS coming back.

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Why are they still running Donnesbury and For Better or For Worse, both of which have been in reruns for over a decade?

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My recollection was that this was partly (mostly) re-runs -- but with some added-in material, filling in gaps, etc.

Some of the re-run Doonesbury stuff turns out to be distressingly timely.

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I mean, if you think the first Gulf War or the New York arts scene in the 1980s is timely, sure, but I don't see it myself.

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