Editorial: Change not always popular

Craig Cooper.

Sometimes newspapers make changes and respond to reader feedback rather than flag the change ahead of time.

There is always the argument for "front footing" change, of course.

We communicated well ahead of the change we made when we moved from broadsheet to compact size pages. For the loss of our Monday weekly television guide, we opted to make the change and respond to the feedback.

We have stopped producing the weekly wrap of listings because of the cost.

We do not make sufficient revenue directly from the listings to warrant publishing it.

We still publish the daily listings, although one or two readers have pointed out to me that they like to see into the next day, so to speak, to plan what they might record.

I have pointed a few readers toward the free TV listings online. And, depending on what sort of TV you have, you can use your remote to look at advance programmes coming up.

Newspapers don't like reducing the service they provide to readers, but we are a business and sometimes have to make decisions that affect readers.

Or we wouldn't be here to carry out our main function, which is to be the go-to provider of local news for Northland. And on that note, let's finish on a positive. In 2015, the Northern Advocate was the best performing regional newspaper in the country. We were the only regional paper that increased circulation - it rose by 1.6 per cent.

Which tells us that the decisions we make daily on how we bring you the news are good decisions, or our readers would not continue to support us. Even when some of those decisions, like losing our weekly TV guide, are unpopular.