Readers are sensitive to the issue. The Bee also has other rules regarding the use of type fonts and design, rules intended to make ads look distinctly different from news. But with the changes in fonts in the news pages of the paper, and the increasing pressure from advertisers wanting to look less like other advertisers, there in an opportunity for more reader confusion. The Bee can't afford to send mixed signals to readers about what is and is not acceptable, and enforcement of the policies requires effort by all departments involved. One of the perceptions a few readers have shared since The Bee was redesigned in early April is that the paper seems to be running more advertising and less news.
Some readers are convinced the redesign effort was a sham to make more money.
Many don't count the space in the other sections but think in terms of the A section only, which does get crowded. The Bee, they report, is one of the very few papers in the country to have both the back page and the third page of the main news section completely free of ads to make room for news. The business folks at The Bee will unhappily acknowledge that advertising lineage, particularly in classified sections, has decreased compared to last year due to the current economic decline. As Bob Casey, the editor in charge of the redesign effort told a reader last week, the goal is to make the paper better, not worse. Readers get to decide if that turns out to be true.