The Whack Street Journal

Ack. I sneezed, and the world changed format. Not the"world" exactly, just the Wall Street Journal. Same thing to a lot of us old heads who like certain things to stay just the way they are, at least until we're dead.

First, there was the old black and white edition at left that lasted about 110 years. Staid, dull, highly informative, and, evidently, insufficiently "hip" for a modern reader steeped in the flash and glamour of such reliable news media as the internet and USA Today (which, BTW, eventually took over the WSJ's widest circulation title in 2003. Duble-ack.)

So , like any good capitalist, the WSJ changed with the customer. It added color ads in 1995, and in April 2002 slapped four color print right on the front page.







I handled it. It was still the WSJ, after all, even if it now included snappy features about women's fashion trends and parenting for the nanny-challenged. I was proud of the way I so willingly coped with modernity.




But now... well, I don't know if I can take it anymore. Starting today, The Wall Street Journal has lopped off a whole column from each page! They have shrunk the paper from 15 inches to a paltry 12 inches wide, or roughly the same width as a "normal" newspaper, such as the Richmond Times-Disgrace or the Atlanta Urinal-Constipation. "Less bulky!" "More user friendly!" they tell me. "Saves newsprint and curbs global warming." Sure, sure. Whatever.

But this!!!! How do you explain this?


Traffic Report
January 1, 2007 10:11 p.m.; Page B4



















It's unforgiveable.
Justin Timberlake over Lil' Scrappy?
Twice?????


Cancel my subscription.