Remind me again how the "new" Hartford Courant is going to be good for me?

The full page ads have begun, with one nestled comfortably on page A12 of today's edition of the Hartford Courant. "INTRODUCING HARTFORD COURANT VERSION 9.28.08" it announced in large font. 

You know what this means?

Those of us that still read the paper are about to get less paper to read.

Below the headline of the ad, an attached blurb boasted how the Courant "deliver(s) in-depth reporting . . . uncover(s) the truth . . . bring(s) you the latest on sports, health, religion, the environment and the economy" in more of a mission statement-style than anything. Never did the ad announce HOW the "VERSION 9.28.08" Hartford Courant was going to please readers. Maybe that's because, no matter how they candy-coat the change, America's oldest continuously published newspaper is only going to get more generic.

Print is dying. It's a fact. I mean, you, the reader, are getting information right now via the web. We all do it all day long. And the more we click, the smaller the newspaper gets. 

Back in June, the Courant staff received a memo detailing the cutbacks. Weekly pages were being cut by 25%. Staff positions by 25%, as well. These changes are what we'll all get to experience when the "new" paper launches on the 28th. I'm sure we'll get more ads and less news. More AP stories and less local flavor. More stories from sister papers like the Chicago Tribune and The Baltimore Sun and less from the Courant itself.

The paper will still be delivering "in-depth reporting," it'll just be coming from a newsroom outside of Connecticut.

Speaking of which, editor at the Courant, in lieu of a full time reviewer, why do you constantly use movie reviews from "I-seem-to-like-nearly-everything" critic Roger Moore at the Orlando Sentinel when you have the great critic Michael Philips over at the Chicago Tribune never getting picked up?

Moving on . . .

Maybe I'm just looking at this in the wrong light. I should be seeing this as a half-full glass. I should be celebrating the fact that, every Monday, I'll have a slightly lighter pile of newsprint to carry out for recycling. I should be happy that the daily read of the paper will be 25% quicker. I should be happy that . . .

Nah. Can't do it.

Well, as long as they keep Mary Worth, I guess I can't complain too loudly.