As the Post chased Bridgeport readers into the countryside with an A section stuffed with local news, readers told the Post to focus more on their chosen towns. There now are three daily zones, with most of the A section remade for each. The newest, the Valley Edition, reaches across the Housatonic River into New Haven County, serving readers who might once have taken the now-defunct Ansonia Sentinel . The other two zones are for southern Fairfield County west of the Housatonic and southern New Haven County east of the river. Reporters close to the Post's suburban readers believe more zoning may be needed in the future.
Management is open to the idea but wants to absorb the Valley effort before taking on another.
Most of the Post's 1998 readership growth was expected to come in the Valley. He speaks so fiercely about his mission that he would frighten a child or timid adult. Ignoring the broken spine of a ring binder that holds his circulation reports, he rips through it looking for examples. To him, each number in the book represents people who must be hunted down, lured into subscribership and coached into a reading habit. People with needs that must be satisfied.