your opinion counts

My mother was invited to be in a focus group for our local newspaper and, of course, she took me with her. We were served a lovely dinner and then along with the retirees, the stay at home moms, and the middle-aged businessmen we reviewed and evaluated the new format the paper is hoping to use next year.

The self-introductions basically seperated the members into three groups: those who read most of the paper every day, those who read most of the paper on the weekends, and me. I don’t read the paper except for the comics, the movie times, and the crossword. I read news mostly online. And this is why the mediator liked me. I represent that cross-section of the population whose readership the paper needs, which is why they are moving to a format that is reminiscent of the internet: highlighted “links” to other sections, more columns for a vertical feel, cleaner and crisper fonts, and more pictures in color. It took some time to convince the retirees that this new style wouldn’t kill them, but in the end all but one of us agreed that when it came out next year we would continue to read the paper, or for me, I might actually consider picking it up.

And then we walked outside to discover that my mother had locked her keys in the car. Four coat hangers, a constantly mewing kittin, three phone calls, the security guard’s lock out kit, a cut finger, and two hours later we finally got to go home.