What?! No #@%**!! daily TV listings?
I’ve talked to a lot of people and answered a lot of e-mails in the last two days about the elimination of the daily TV listings. Yes, my ears are ringing. Most people understand that it wasn’t my decision (it wasn’t, and I’m sad about it), but they’re frustrated and angry over the loss of a feature they’ve counted on for years. And hey, I looked at those grids every day too, just to make sure I hadn’t forgotten something I needed to watch that night.
The simple reason for the change is that the economy is bad, many businesses, including newspapers, are suffering, and the price of newsprint is soaring. As editor Arnie Robbins explained in notes to readers, 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 people use them, relying instead on interactive on-screen guides, customizable online listings or the old click-around method. The Post-Dispatch weekly TV magazine, which may have been on your coffee table as long as you can remember, has been cut way back and is now included only in papers delivered to subscribers. Even the iconic TV Guide magazine, which sells for $3.99 a week, has comparatively few listings these days.
If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re not one of the people who still makes much use of printed listings. For people who do still count on them, I can only recommend saving and using the PDtv guide from the Sunday paper and consulting my TV Picks in the daily Everyday pullout, which I’ll try to make as comprehensive as possible. If you have cable, check the TV Guide Channel; with digital cable or satellite, use its built-in guide.
And if you have computer access — and many of the complaints I got came by e-mail, so I know you folks have computers — I do suggest trying the listings on STLtoday.com. They are really very good, and not that hard to set up; they give you everything you need and more, and you can even print them out. Here’s where to go.
The TV page at STLtoday (click on the highlighted words to go directly there) is your first stop. In addition to my TV Picks and a link to new posts on Tube Talk, you’ll find a link to the TV Grid. Once you click through and set them up by entering your location, by ZIP code, you’ll get listings for your local channels. (If you don’t set the listings up, you won’t get all the info.) Click on a show title and get a description of the episode — and in many cases a list of upcoming episodes. Go forward in time, by hour or day, as far as two weeks. Set preferences to see only your favorite channels. Print the grid out, if you want to, and put it on the coffee table.
By the way, we’re improving the TV page every day, including adding the full day’s talk show listings, beginning with the morning shows and going straight through to midnight. So bookmark it and check back regularly.
Some people have also complained to me that there’s no place online to vent. Feel free to make use of this post by adding comments (watch your $#&! language, though). But phone comments are being compiled to gauge reader reaction, so please also call. The number is 314-340-8966. You can opt to leave a message or speak to someone; you can also e-mail comments@post-dispatch.com.
Is “sucks” a bad word?
Anyways, I’m not fond of the Post-Dispatch’s recent changes; it was kind of the last straw. My personal economy is bad too, so I’m cutting back to weekends only.
The daily TV schedule was one of the few reasons I still keep my daily home delivery of the Post-Dispatch. Most of the other news I get on-line. Please bring back the TV schedule or you will have one less subscriber.
I love the P-D’s business plan. Costs are high and revenue low, so cut out features that readers really want but are expensive (i.e. tv listings, comics, and real, hard-hitting local news). Watch subscriptions plummet, which in turn reduces ad revenue, leading to more cuts. The quality of the Post-Dispatch has deteriorated severely since its glory years, and there is very little reason to read it anymore.
If the PD wasn’t throwing away money by tossing that Journal garbage on everyones lawn three times a week, they could afford to print the TV listing. Get rid of the Journals and work on making the PD a real newspaper again.
jfmoyn,
You hit the nail on the head, get rid of that waste of paper/newsprint the suburban journals and bring back a truly metropolitan newspaper.
I cut back to the Sunday only paper years ago.
I use to really enjoy the Sunday paper, there was a least a good hour to hour and half of good informative stories, now I can get through the Sunday paper in 15-20 minutes. THERE IS NOTHING IN IT, the business section is a JOKE, mostly syndicated articles and they beat the same story to death. I guarantee you there will be ANOTHER article this week on how to handle your 401K. I can’t beleive in a metro area of 2.5+ million people there are not local articles that can be written about local business(es).
The ONLY reason I still subscribe is because of the sports section, if they start wacking that I will become an ex-subscriber.
I suspected all along that once the Pulitzer family sold the new owners would only be interested in profit and not journalism or bringing news to the community.
I have never responded to any blogs but because of my frustration with the elimination of the TV listings I felt compelled enough to share in the discourse. I agree with the comments about the Journal elimination versus removing the TV listings or any other parts of the paper. Did the Post do a survey of what elements are of no interest to the readers prior to this knee jerk reaction? Please reevaluate this decision.
Everyone’s watching their pennies now-a-days. One of the ONLY reasons that I kept my subscription to the Post was for the TV listings. Now I quess I can save more. Thanks for nothing…
Usually, I am not a blog poster either. However, elimination of the TV listings is not a good idea. Everyone will not hop online just to check TV listings. Also, not everyone pays for cable/satellite TV, though the implication always seems to be that nearly everyone does.
So, while everyone was crabbing about TV listings being gone, I went to
http://affiliate.zap2it.com/tvlistings/ZCGrid.do?aid=z9g and viewed TV listings.
Actually, this may have an unintended benefit - maybe instead of reading TV listings, people will read books instead.
The best point made so far - get rid of the Suburban Journals and actually hire some folks to beef up the Metro section.
A. Friend
Yes, eliminating the listings is despicable. Not everyone has a computer;
I use my neighbor’s or the pubic library. Having to print out a listing
is just too much of an imposition. We over-the-air viewers have been
discriminated against repeatedly by actions like this and the whole
DTV-conversion fiasco. (Did you know that the Florida emergency-services
have petitioned to stop the DTV conversion because eliminating analog
TV destroys the emergency-notification service of analog TV stations,
since digital TV doesn’t work in severe weather or on small portable
battery-operated TVs? Why haven’t we here in the tornado belt done the same?)
Without the features we want and use, this newspaper becomes merely an outlet for advertising. Why should we pay to read ads? Mention to Mr. Robbins that he may be contributing to a self-fulfilling prophecy as this particular dinosaur continues to lose its luster. We can see plenty of ads on television.
The daily TV schedule was one of the few reasons I still keep my daily home delivery of the Post-Dispatch. Most of the other news I get on-line.
But I go through the guide, circle movies I want to tape, shows I don’t want to miss, etc.
Please bring back the TV schedule or you will have one less subscriber.
I gave up on the STL TV guide over a year ago when the stopped putting them in the weekly papers on the newstands. I also have not purchased a paper since.
I personally use the guide on my remote but my mother has ALWAYS used the daily listings and is VERY UPSET by this change. How cheap can you be? So you can’t afford ink so we can print out our own? At $40-$50 bucks an ink cartridge that’s not going to happen. I told her to cancel the whole subscription!
Seriously, it’s 2008. Just use the Guide & Search functions bundled with your staelite/cable package.
I’ve never met the man, but Arnie Robbins must be a complete moron if he thinks this is going to fly. If there is one thing newspaper people know, it’s not to screw with subscribers’ comics or TV. I predict that this policy will be reversed.
Timing is everything. I just got a DTV converter box which has the electronic programing guide so if the PD would have just waited 6 months or so the number of people affected would have been greatly reduced. I only get the Fri, Sat, Sun paper delivered and use the TV guide throughout the week but by Sat half the listings had changed in the 2 weeks since the guide was originally printed. Haven’t gotten my first addition of the new format so I don’t know if they publish corrections. Oh and I don’t even have a computer or even a phone line at home to check the internet listings unless I would do so at work like now.
The Monday PD was so thin there wasn’t enough there to line my bird cage or wipe my tail.Old slogan”You get the most when you get the Post”
My Monday Post was so thin I could read the Tuesday newspaper through it.
Does anyone under 60 actually get their TV Listings from the newspaper? I can’t see this as being that big of a deal.
While I can understand the need to control costs, why not ask the customers what they want to get rid of instead of making unilateral decisions.
Newspapers are so desperate for readers that they are cutting the features readers want ? Great business plan. If they saved half the money they are spending trying to make the front page look like a web site they might publish a lot of things — like news, information…..
I’m glad to see that the couple dozen people that actually care about this took the time to write in. People, get with it. TV listings are a thing of the past. You can find them all over the web, on your TIVOs and DVRs, and on select cable and satellite channels. And before you say, “I don’t have cable or blah, blah, blah……” Hello, you’re in the minority and that’s exactly why this is being eliminated. MINORITY…….FEW PEOPLE USING IT !!!!!
Plus, with all of the last-minute changes made by the networks these days, a lot of the listings are outdated anyway.
I’m sure the Post managers are shaking in their boots with all of your veiled threats of cancellation. Believe me, 99% of the population couldn’t care less about this, and if the other 1% want to cancel their subscriptions, do it. It’s a miniature drop in the bucket.
You should be happy this is the only thing getting whacked at this point. Newspapers are a dying breed. You all better learn how to find all of your information online, because that’s the way it’s going to be. Newspapers are going to be a thing of the past in the next 10 or so years.
Patrick, I debated about responding to your post because most of what you say is true. Newsprint is a dying medium, and TV listings are available in many different forums, but that’s not the point. People subscribe to a paper for many reasons, some very specific. It may surprise you, but some may do it for the daily TV listings alone. The sheer volume of blogs generated by this move should show that. I’ll bet Gail could testify that this has dwarfed her average business. And I can assure you that P-D editors are not nearly so cavalier as you when it comes to threatened cancellations. They can’t afford to be. For the very reasons you list, they would not view a 1% cancellation as a “drop in the bucket”. That bucket is hemorrhaging more and more, and they can ill afford to lose even one, if they can avoid it.
When, in the past, the PD has changed its format, many have complained and no one at the PD appeared to listen. Always move forward, no matter what the subscribers think. Anyway, for what its worth, here I go…
Putting the Go! section on Fridays is a good idea, but the major changes in the paper are not all good.
Combining the Health Section with the Food Section may have seemed like a good idea. However, there are fewer articles and recipes. And the Monday paper is pitifully thin!
There are enough folks that have stated my complaints about the lack of daily tv listings but needed to add my own. The weekly Sunday listings are frequently incorrect so I relied on the daily. I do have a computer; however, I do not turn it on to refer to the tv listings. I really appreciate Gail’s TV Picks, but that just isn’t enough! Additionally, if we print out a schedule, as suggested by Gail, who is spending more money on paper and ink!? Thanks, Post!
Wow! I never would have guessed that so many people were dependent on printed TV listings from the newspaper, but I guess it’s whatever you get used to. Many, many years ago when TV Guide used to print detailed listings with show descriptions, cast, guest stars etc. I couldn’t wait for it to arrive in the mail. Then they switched to grids with tiny print and little more than the name of the show. It seems that in the past several years, networks have become notorious for making last minute changes, so printed listings are often incorrect before the ink is dry.
Even though I have satellite with an electronic program guide, I still depend heavily on the internet for TV listings. Several years ago there was a site called GistTV, but unfortunately they went out of business. They had a great feature where you could select your favorite shows, filter them various ways, and it would generate a printable calendar with dates, times and channels. When the site shut down they transferred all their users to Zap2It, which was good but they didn’t have the calendar feature. I used Zap2It for several years until they made a lot of changes to the display, and now I find it really frustrating and harder to read.
The one I use now is TitanTV (www.titantv.com). It’s nicely color coded, easy to read, and you can customize it several ways. And it displays correctly with all browsers that I’ve tried.
My suburban journal goes from the driveway to the recycle bin. If people had to subscribe to get that, P-D would either earn money from the subscriptions or save money on printing. Either way they could concentrate on making the main paper better and quit cutting things subscribers/consumers want.
My high school history teacher used to call this paper the Post-Disgrace. That man was never wrong.
I agree with everyone else that eliminating the Journal was a good move. I cancelled by subscription to TV Guide when they cut their program listings. Sure, I like the puzzle pages and the star profiles, etc., but it’s a TV GUIDE! I don’t want to see “Movie,” I want to see which movie. I’m not interested in knowing about morning talk shows unless I can find out who the guests are. So I used the Dish TV channel guide, but I also checked the STL Today tv listings to line up the evening programs. Not available to me on the weekends, but enough info to get by. Now that’s gone. There were PLENTY of ads on the tv listings, I could hardly see the listings for the fold down ads. BB