By Andrew WestDOVER — Do you remember the old road construction signs with the words “Pardon Our Progress”?
We are busy with roadwork for the newspaper’s future.
As you turn through the pages of the newly redesigned Delaware State News, we hope you will keep this in mind.
Today’s edition includes some of our new approaches:
• The bold, new front page is designed to give readers a quick glance at the best content inside;
• Our report on ocean water health features original reporting on an issue important to Delawareans;
• We have four pages of Opinion, showcasing our commitment to a civil discussion of community issues;
• Sunday Morning includes important dates for you to circle on your calendars and a Q-and-A;
• And, the back of the Sunday Morning section now includes Almost Monday — which will point readers to important meetings and events in the coming week.
The lead story in today’s paper — examining Delaware ocean water — relates to an ongoing series we are doing on water-related issues in the state. Business Editor Logan Anderson and writers Glenn Rolfe, Craig Anderson, Kirit Minhas and Konner Metz are all contributing.
Photographer Marc Clery took the excellent front page photo of the Rehoboth Beach lifeguard shooing swimmers away from an outfall pipe.
Larger type
We would like to thank all of you who contacted us to express your concern about the size of the type used in Friday’s newspaper.
“Frankly, the type was, as many of you pointed out, far too small, and we apologize for the inadvertent error,” said Publisher Darel La Prade. “An automatic setting in our layout system was incorrect.
“Our plan all along has been to make our news stories easier to read, not more difficult.”
The type in today’s paper has been changed to what we originally intended to use. It is larger, has more white space between the lines, and should be easier to read — at least that is what the members of our test group have told us.
Let us know what you think. We are here to serve you, our readers, who are both judge and jury, and within the confines of what is possible, we intend to give you what works best for you.
We likewise acknowledge that on Friday our comic strips and weekday features were also too small, and we will reconfigure the layout for them before Tuesday.
Please keep your comments and suggestions coming. We appreciate all of them. You may call us at 302-608-0062 to leave a voice message, or you can email us at dsnhotline@iniusa.org.
Reader question
One of our readers called our Hotline and asked if there would be a change in the newsstand price.
Tuesday through Friday newspapers will remain $1. Sunday newspapers will increase by 50 cents to $3.
Sending out an S-O-S
We have had a clunker or two or three in recent weeks. There is no need to recount them here.
I suspect every editor gets a sore forehead now and then. I did on Tuesday when I saw we listed the day of the week as Wednesday at the top of every page.
Hopefully, we did not cause too much alarm. We did hear from a reader who panicked after thinking she was late for her bridge group.
A confounding error was in The Jumble published on Thursday.
Readers unscrambled the four clues — worry, afoot, sesame and gotten — and then found that they had 12 letters circled. The answer called for 13.
As it turns out, the fourth word was supposed to have four circled letters. The “e” was left out.
But that wasn’t the big problem. The third scrambled clue was supposed to be OWSSHO — swoosh.
To solve the puzzle, it required the S-0-S.
A distress signal, indeed.
Andrew West is executive editor of the Delaware State News.
