Letter from the editor: One-stop shop for news

I have written before about the fact that you can’t please all of the readers all of the time, and in yesterday’s email bag was a classic example.

First up was Ann McQuade of West Sussex. “One of the USPs of your excellent publication,” she writes, “is the staple which averts the possibility of sundry pages getting out of my grip and becoming strewn all over the floor, sofa, porridge etc. Where was it this morning?” she asks. “Did my newsagent steal it? Is it a production saving?” (We have checked with your newsagent, Ann, and he denies responsibility, so I am afraid that it is nothing more than a localised production blip that I hope is corrected today.)

Next up was Joy Godfrey. “Simon Kelner - please!!! - can you NOT put staples in i,” she writes. Now,as many of my colleagues will tell you, I do most of the important tasks round here (from finishing off the features editor’s home-made banana cake to providing kind words for our disconsolate Arsenal-supporting sports editor) but I’m not actually responsible for stapling copies of i.

Anyway, Joy continues her lament about the staple. “It makes it difficult to share, i.e. you have the crossword, while I read the rest.” She also complains that it makes it harder to separate the pages to put them to other uses, but given that we never designed i to line a budgie’s cage, I think that’s excusable. (In any case, you don’t want your budgie suddenly reciting Cooper Brown when your auntie’s there.)

No, we designed i as an antidote to multi-section papers, which many find cumbersome and time-consuming. We are a one-stop shop for news, and the staple does, we believe, make the paper easier to handle and thus more reader friendly. And we don’t charge you any extra for it!