Quotes and ideas from the first 226 comments published about the new Observer:
• The MAGAZINE is boring, and new font size is crazy (“please increase the font size in the Magazine to something that is readable without changing my reading glasses prescription”).
• The TV LISTINGS don’t make any sense (“The TV guide is a waste of paper. The information is easily available elsewhere”).
• THE NEW YORK TIMES section is a Guantanamo (“Why persist with the New York Times pullout?”).
• Where is TRAVEL?
• Too much POLITICAL GOSSIP.
• Go for THE SUNDAY GUARDIAN (“What my family wants is a SUNDAY GUARDIAN but with more depth!”).
• HOROSCOPE is gone!
• TRIVIAL content (“I wish you would invest in journalism rather than iPhone Apps and gimmicky redesigns”)
• The SPORTS is just a FOOTBALL section.
• We want more SECTIONS (“Sunday paper is for sharing: if you reduce the sections, we cant share anymore”). Are you sure? UK is becoming a single home occupant country!
• The CASH section is a joke (“The Cash section is so thin on content that it is laughable”).
My final take:
If The Observer wants to deliver more with less, must have BETTER CONTENT, FANTASTIC DESIGN, UNIQUE BREAKING-NEWS, COMPELLING STORIES, DRAMATIC INFOGRAPHICS, PROVOCATIVE COLUMNISTS and more CAVIAR JOURNALISM.
Now there is too much spin and no substance.
Readers want strong double espresso, but not watered American coffee grande.
So, the new format is fine, the new content is bad.
As simple as that.
Poor value for £2.
Tags: "Caviar Journalism", Horoscopes, Sections, THE GUARDIAN, The New York Times, The Observer