Sunday Morning Paper

A Disappointment!

The Roanoke Times leaves a lot to be desired. A few weeks ago, we were missing the comic section. The obituaries have been messed up for weeks with gaping holes in some of the type. One day our paper was printed so that part of the bottom was at the top. Today, one section (the Ticker) came strangely folded.

The resulting crease made for difficult reading.

That crease persisted even when the fold had been smoothed out.

Because we have a print subscription, we're supposed to also have an e-subscription. The Roanoke Times iPad app hasn't worked for a couple of months, though.

However, I don't actually read all of the Sunday paper. Here are the parts I won't read today. I never read the sports section or the classifieds because I'm not a sports fan and I'm not buying or selling anything. I don't bother reading ads for stores that aren't even in my area. I did read the grocery ads when they were in the Sunday paper, but now they in the Wednesday paper. 

There is more of the paper that I don't read than what I do read. Here are the sections of today's paper that  I actually read: 

It usually takes me less than a half hour to read these sections. Years ago, the paper would last all morning. There's not much to read now—fewer and smaller pages than in the past—and bigger pictures. The Parade section used to be a magazine that would last all week; now it's only a few small pages (with ads taking up a lot of it). Again, notice that big pictures on the front section (top left) and extra have huge pictures.

I thought I was missing the Virginia section, because the bottom of the page said a story about the former governor's defense strategies was on page 1 of the Virginia section.

Turns out the Virginia section (which existed for many years as a separate section) is now on page 11 of the front section (which I think is the Nation & World section even though two of the three stories on its front page are local stories. See—here it is:

Still, there's not a lot of news anywhere in the paper. Surely things happen in Roanoke and the surrounding area, don't they? If so, why doesn't The Roanoke Times report them? And why doesn't it offer a little quality control in what it does print?

I really miss the paper the way it used to be years ago, but I'm looking forward to future editions folded as paper airplanes or origami. 

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