Reader Reaction p.

By: M.L. Stein

Reader Reaction p.
Orange County Register editor invites comment
on redesign; 1,300 readers respond, only a handful cancel
DOES THE REDESIGN of a newspaper provoke reader comment and opinions?
Judging by the experience of the Orange County Register in Santa Ana, Calif., it sure does ? especially when the editor invites the reactions via a special phone line.
Immediately after the Register changed its format ? headlines and body type ? switched different features around and added new ones, editor Tonnie Katz got about 1,300 calls, a majority of them negative.
"Approximately 800 people didn't like changes and the rest loved them," Katz recalled. "Some suggested I be given a raise and others thought I should be fired."
Many of the complaints, she added, centered around the new locations for features, especially from long time readers. A Page Three county and state roundup, for example, has been made a Nation and World page. One new feature is County Scan, a city-by-city report in brief paragraphs similar in style to USA Today's state report.
Actually, Katz said, the response, despite the numbers, could almost be taken as a vote of approval when one considers the Register's daily circulation of 350,000 and 415,000 on Sunday. Most readers, even when they are pleased by its content, do not contact a newspaper to praise anything, she observed.
Katz telephoned about 100 of the callers whose views jammed several voice mailboxes.
"I asked the gripers what they specifically did not like about the redesign," she said. If they were not already aware of it, Katz pointed out that by calling a another phone number, they could learn the page to which their favorite feature had been shifted.
"I also told them that this is a work in progress, an evolutionary process aimed at making the newspaper better," the editor reported, "but I can understand their feelings. Even I got a shock when I first looked at the changes, despite all the work we put into it."
Overall, Katz said, "We're really encouraged that 1,300 people took the trouble to call us and give their views."
Before making the changes, which made their debut in April, the Register quizzed focus groups for their input.
Register ombudsman Pat Riley, who issued no invitation for readers' reaction to the new format, got 130 calls anyway. Only 11 were 100% favorable.
"Quite a few others liked some changes, disliked others," Riley noted.
Katz got a particular lift from one subscriber. The editor was taking her regular morning walk before going to the office when she saw a woman picking up her Register from the driveway.
Prepared for the worst, Katz identified herself and asked the woman how she liked the new paper.
"She was ecstatic," Katz said. "She said she had been taking the paper for 37 years and thought the changes were great and that it was easier to read."
Katz said the "handful" of subscribers who cancelled were interviewed about their reasons.