The Northeast Times will be changing to a new printer next week and the move will lead us to change the paper’s shape slightly, from a rectangle to a square.
The paper will be printed at the Schuylkill Printing Plant in Conshohocken, the home press of The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News. The Times will remain a tabloid, and take on the same dimensions as the Daily News.
Beginning with the issue of May 1, we will be about an inch shorter and an inch wider. Our sister paper, the Star, which circulates in the River Wards, converted to this new size on April 17, when it began printing at the same printing plant.
We’ve been pleased by the color photo reproduction in Star, and expect the same high quality on the pages of the Northeast Times.
This change in shape has given us an opportunity to take a fresh look at the design of the Times, and over the next few months, you will see us making some changes intended to better fit our new canvas. As always, we want to hear what you think of the changes we make in your community paper.
••
Pearl Harta, who heads our circulation effort, says we have been having some problems with bogus collectors going door to door in the Times’ Zone 1, which is largely from the Mayfair to Wissinoming sections. People posing as Northeast Times collectors are asking for payment for the paper’s delivery.
Pearl asked me to remind our readers that everyone who collects money for the Times has an identification badge, collection book or collection envelope.
So, if you don’t know the person doing the collecting, please be sure to ask to see his or her ID or call our circulation department at 215–354–3146 to verify the delivery person.
••
As the events at the Boston Marathon unfolded last week, much was made of the mistakes that some of mainstream media and the new social media made in covering the manhunt.What stood out for me, though, was something quite different: the role the media plays in helping police track down bad guys.
This came to mind as I stood in front of a rack of a dozen newspapers inside a Wawa last Friday morning and looked at their front pages. Every single one of them showed a photo of the missing suspect with his white ball cap on backward and his face clearly visible.
Here at the Times, we play a similarly important role each week when we publish photos and stories about people the police say have committed crimes. We regularly run their images caught on surveillance cameras.
This public service helps local police spread the word and sometimes leads to tips from citiznes that result in arrests. And that keeps all of us safer. ••
Reach Lillian Swanson at 215–354–3030 or lswanson@bsmphilly.com
