My reaction has been swift. After about five straight days of its absence, and no reply to any Tweets, I have downgraded my print subscription to the Saturday/Sunday print edition only. Say it isn't so and I'll be back.
But reversing themselves is unlikely. A decision has been made, staff has been cut or reallocated, and tough if you don't like it. Consider some very recent A-Hed pieces that enlivened the front page before the tap was turned off. Tell me in all honesty if we all weren't all better off after absorbing the text following titles like:
(After the 23rd, the A-Hed fell off the cliff.)
February 23, A Real-Life 'Queen's Gambit'—Maid Becomes a Chess Champ
February 22, Welcome to Gotham City. Or, Actually, Glasgow?
February 19/ 20, Moon, June Left Marooned: Pop Songs Embrace Imperfect Rhymes
February 18, Mystery of Italy's Crown Jewels Is Who Gets to Keep Them
February 17, Blast the Music, Turn Up the Heat—Time to Break WFH Rules
Keep going back and you get to an absolutely indispensable A-Hed piece:
January 11, Everyone's Playing Wordle. Here Come the Spreadsheets and Debates
And it's not as if the A-Hed piece disappeared from the print edition but remained online. It's gone. What is an A-Hed piece someone asked.
It is a genially piece of journalism framed under a border that can be said to be in the shape of a very broad A. A Google link can enlighten those who are unfamiliar with it.
There was once a collection of A-Hed pieces bound in a hard copy edition that was titled "Floating off the Page." That I know of, it was only produced once, and I have a copy.
Print journalism has been in a death spiral for years now, and one might even say that's true of journalism in general. Both the NYT and the WSJ eliminated their New York City sections. In particular, sports is not covered by beat reporters. Professional teams in New York City do not get a post game writeup. Fuhgetaboutit.
The entire contents of the WSJ is continuously shrinking, as their weekday newsstand price goes from $3.00 to $4.00 to $5.00. Quickly. No small increments there. If I hadn't been getting a discount price for what turned out to be reliable home delivery, I wouldn't have been getting the paper.
My weekday cancellation because of the disappearance of the A-Hed piece will take me away from some parts of the paper that I will miss. The weekday book review is always in the same place, one page before the editorials in the A section. TV and movie reviews will be missed, as well as the little Salt and Pepper cartoon on the editorial page. Several of them are held by magnets to cabinets in my garage workshop. They can be priceless as well as timeless.
Sometime ago I once heard from Stephen Miller who used to do obituaries for the WSJ that the A-Hed pieces were edited by a long-term employee, an absolute treasure of a man. It's possible this person has passed away, or taken retirement, and took the job with them.
If so, they like the A-Hed piece, will be missed.
http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com
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