Texas Papers Combine Comics and Other Features into One Page

By: E&P Staff At least two dailies owned by Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. are combining their "Comics" and "Pastimes" pages into one page.

Starting today, the Mineral Wells (Texas) Index did the combining by canceling features such as the comics "Alley Oop," "Soup to Nutz," "Big Nate," "Over the Hedge," and "Monty."

Comics retained included "Kit 'N' Carlisle," "The Born Loser," "Zits," "Frank & Ernest," "Sam & Silo,? "Dilbert" and "The Grizzwells." Also kept were features such as "Dear Abby."

Input from a reader survey was used in determining what was dropped and what's staying.

Meanwhile, The Weatherford (Texas) Democrat yesterday also combined its "Comics" and "Pastimes" pages into one page.

Among the features dropped were the "Over the Hedge," "Sam & Silo," and "Monty" comics. Other features, such as "Dear Abby," were retained -- and the medical column by Dr. Peter Gott was added.

The Democrat had also polled readers about its features lineup.