As posted earlier this week, The Hartford Courant will go through another unfortunate round of layoffs. The announcement will most likely be made this upcoming week and the cuts look like their going to be very aggressive and very quick.
I have to say that as far as blame goes, although Tribune Corp takes the lions share, I am partly responsible. I can’t remember the last time I actually purchased the paper. I know we get a copy at City Hall but I don’t even peruse through that. I find myself only looking to pick up the Thursday paper due to the Cal Section, quite simply the best A&E weekly in the state.
I do, however, make courant.com part of my daily morning ritual. Let’s see, email, facebook, and then the courant. But I just found a new vice that I think is hinting at the direction that the leaner Courant will go towards. City fuckin Line!! That’s right, the Courant’s new “place for Hartford News” has quickly become a must-click for me. As much as I bitched about it in my aforementioned post, I actually found myself looking for it on Courant.com’s main page….and not finding it. Actually…I’m happy I bitched about it because the only way I could go on it these days is to click on it from my blog. Hmmmm, wondering if that accounts for my analytics numbers going up from 10 to 15 viewers…cha-ching!!
CityLine is one stop shopping for me. So far, I’ve seen Cohen, Mozdzer, and Ubiñas. And as much as I might have issues with their lack of details in reporting, these people are out there speaking about stuff that we otherwise won’t ever hear about. Think about it, Jodie Mozdzer is the only (I repeat, ONLY) journalist for the Hartford school system. Now she’s free to look into more things about a city entity that G-d knows needs some oversight.
Not only have they created this new site for quick hits that probably won’t fit in the smaller print edition, but they’ve also revamped the way some of the individual blogs look. A good example is the person I love to nag the most, Helen Ubiñas. Her “Notes from Hel” blog now jumps out at you like friggin 3d…very clean graphics. Helen, is also one of the few who isn’t afraid to call out peoples for b.s. posted anonymously, so the chance for livelier repartee in the comments section is greater. (for an example of what the old style was, you can goto Stan’s blog here…) The main blog section is here, although some of the “blogs” are just links to the columnists individual archives for past columns.
I checked with some peeps and it looks like March 7th will be the date of a new web presence for the Courant. I have to say that I am looking forward to it, even just a little. I have totally gone over to the dark side when it comes to technology. Between Facebook, Hulu, Youtube, traditional News sources, and newer, more detailed Blogs, I now list the internet as my main must have necessity. So, while I mourn the untold number of friends that will be looking for work some time in the near future, I have to admit that my Hartford Courant reading experience might actually become better…wierd, aint it?
[...] than I could count. It’s really nice when my hard work is acknowledged by critics. The Ionhartford blog mentions the redesign that’s been happening sparsely on some of our blogs. The author seems highly critical, so the [...]
I do not see why Hartford did not condem the Butt ugl bldg, make the owner demolish it and then size the property for back taxes. Instead the morons are buying the building paying for removal and hoprfully selling thr property