Et Tu, Gray Lady?

This weekly section marked a small, but noticeable, change for The New York Times print edition last week

If you have read any of my other posts on this blog, you might be aware that I am someone who is not a fan of change for change sake, especially when it comes to printed newspapers.  Last spring, I called out my local paper, The Dayton Daily News, for making cosmetic changes to their publication that, in my opinion, were unwarranted and simply a ploy to placate their readership's current whims.  In a follow-up piece, I expressed my displeasure with the folks at The New York Times Magazine for toying around with different fonts for its masthead in, what I hoped would be, a one-time experiment.  I haven't seen any subsequent violations of that "sacrosanct" journalism symbol since, but you can imagine my surprise when I took yesterday's copy of The New York Times out of its protective plastic sleeve and saw the wholesale changes they made to the entire paper (minus the news section, the magazine and the Book Review).

Journalism Intruded Upon My 'Hiatus'

Three Oscar-contending films...and all feature some elements of our past and present press in their presentations

From around Thanksgiving to the start of the new year, I was in a 'hiatus' status that was based on a variety of reasons both within--and outside--of my direct control.  While I ignored my responsibility to this site during that period, I did do other things that, unexpectedly, kept the topic of journalism in my conscience thoughts.  Some of those activities included taking in a few movies that are believed to be high on the lists for Oscar consideration later next month.  I picked them because of that "buzz" as well as the subject material and/or theme of the film but all three did resonate with me due to my current studies and other personal connections. [SPOILER ALERT: while these are not meant to be full-fledged movie reviews, I will be discussing elements that may ruin the experience for you if you have not seen them yet so please be aware.]