The New Bee

That's our local newspaper, The Sacramento Bee. Yesterday marked the first day of circulation for the transformed paper, which for the most part appeared to be a newspaper on a diet. Oh to be fair, the Tuesday and Wednesday papers are not normally the thickest of the week to begin with... let's see what's in store when Sunday rolls around. The typeface seemed to be smaller overall and harder-edged than previously used. The obits however, are in larger print as so are the puzzles (Jumble, Sudoku, Cryptoquote and the NY Times Crosswords). I look forward to these puzzles, so that would be a bonus for me (I wear reading glasses now).

The comics appear in full color every day instead of being limited to just Sundays, which leads me to ask, "have they always been created in color and we've been shortchanged all this time with B&W?".

Additional color is also introduced sparingly elsewhere, such as in the photographs of our illustrious columnists who slave away on their word processors to bring us the daily news, drivel, or what have you.

It comes down to this: content aside, IMHO the Bee comes pretty close to looking like USA Today (and perhaps even closer if I actually read the latter). Now if only the newspaper carrier would leave my paper on the doorstep near the door's latch instead of the door's hinges...