Ocala learns the hard way: Don’t screw with the puzzles
Apparently, the Ocala Star-Banner redesigned recently.
By all accounts, the redesign went over well, all except for one little detail — they changed the puzzles and they made them smaller.
Never a good idea, folks.
Managing editor Tom McNiff writes today:
Newspaper editors are accustomed to receiving complaints, but the negative reaction to the puzzles was significant by any measure. I personally fielded about 100 calls, and I’d estimate the calls to the switchboard, circulation department and other parts of the building at around 400.
Almost all of the calls were from our older readers, and the message was the same in each case: Quit messing with our puzzles.
The only correct response in the face of such passion is, yes sir or yes ma’am.
Not only did the Star-Banner reduce the size of the Sudoku puzzle, it also replaced its longrunning NEA crossword with the famous New York Times crossword.
Features editor David Moore writes:
“You have to be a Rhodes scholar to do that puzzle,” another caller said.
“That puzzle might be fine for the professors at the university,” the crossword fan told me, “but not for everyday people who just enjoy working a puzzle.”
The answer, of course, is a n0-brainer. Ocala is enlarging Sukoku, retaining the NYT crossword and bringing back the NEA crossword — it’ll be transplanted into the daily classified section, Moore writes.
Meanwhile, in other news: Ocala has redesigned. Let me see what I can pull together on that.