Letter from the editor: Stupendous value
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Your support makes all the difference.We are still taking stock of the emails, tweets and Facebook posts about the launch edition of i on Saturday, and, as I said yesterday, everyone seems to have their own particular likes and dislikes.
This is what makes an editor’s job rather problematic. I’m not complaining, but it would be nice if you all thought in a broadly similar way. To give you a flavour of the responses, take these: a text from Bonnie (no other identification, I'm afraid) says “never, ever be tempted to split the paper into sections” while John Turnbull asked whether we would “consider printing the Leisure & Pleasure section as a pull-out so that two can enjoy the paper simultaneously”. See what I mean?
There were, however, some consistent themes: you like our sports pages, but think we should have more coverage of football beneath the Championship; you appreciated the introduction of a Codeword, but puzzlers are never happy and there were calls both for a factual crossword and for more sudoku; and you really liked our new TV listings pages, especially the addition of the Radio 4 Extra schedule.
I particularly liked the more esoteric observations. Will Pridie asked if we could include the best rates for savers on our personal finance pages; Tim McMahon wanted us to include an i reader in our birthdays column; and Keith of Dover texted to ask why this column was vertical on a weekday and horizontal on a Saturday – “Why are you lying down on page 2?” he wondered.
As always, we will do all we can to accommodate your requests, and, as for Keith, you don’t know how accurate you are. It’s not only the column that’s currently in the upright position, but the writer, too! I am composing these musings while standing up on a train all the way from London to Manchester. It is a much-improved service, but in order to be guaranteed a seat I’d have had to pay £199 for the privilege of a place in one of the disproportionate number of carriages designated as first-class (mainly occupied by people who are not paying for themselves). It’s at moments like this you realise what stupendous value i is! Now where’s the buffet car?
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