By: Joe Strupp With little fanfare, The New York Times has dropped its Sunday TV Book, citing a need to expand television listings through its Web site and shifting the Sunday print version to the Arts & Leisure section.
The change occurred last Sunday when subscribers received a letter with their paper announcing the change. Times Spokeswoman Diane McNulty said an editor's note in the April 30 TV Book also announced the change, along with house ads that have previously run.
"The TV Book had such a proliferation of cable TV offerings in the New York area, it was too much for the book," McNulty said. "We replaced the book with a television grid." But McNulty pointed to an expanded Web service that will eventually include tools allowing readers to link to reviews of shows, movie descriptions and personalized listings.
McNulty said she did not know how much money would be saved by stopping the TV Book. She also said the paper had received some complaints, but did not have specific data on e-mails and phone calls that had come in. "It is really too soon to tell," she said about the reaction. "A lot of people are asking about it and some complaining."
Catherine Mathis, Times vice president of corporate communications, also had no exact numbers on reaction, but said "It is what we expected." She added that some people had chosen to subscribe to the paper every day so that they could get the daily TV listings in place of the book.
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