The eagle-eyed panelist who caught the most mistakes in the listings would win a VCR or television. The Inquirer used the information over months to change the paper s deadlines to include late programming changes and to strong-arm local TV stations to cooperate more on improving the listings. Roberts said he launched similar changes in deadlines and accuracy improvements at the Times. Readers helped guide those changes. I learned to distrust focus groups, he said.
Customers notice the improvements.
Research shows that the more accurate the listings, the more TV Guide s penetration faded, he said. Papers too often fail to zone their listings to account for differences in cable providers. Boy, is that a mistake, he said. Research shows readership of TV listings was 10 percent higher in areas with service-specific listings, he said. Not at all.