Too Many Summary Pages In The L.A. Times

It used to be Page 3 was a major part of the L.A. Times, and an incentive for local reporters looking for good display of their stories, in addition to Page 1 and Page 1 of Part Two. This was before the California section preempted the suburban sections and the paper, admittedly, was more prosperous than it is now.

Later, John Carroll decided on the California Section for most local and state news and put foreign stories on Page 3. That was okay, except that it cost state political columnist George Skelton his coveted spot in the first section.

Now, Page 3 is a summary page, where other stories in the paper are summarized.

But the LAT already had Page 2 for that purpose.

There are aspects of the revamped paper I like, but this extra summary page is not one of them.

It doesn't give the reader much information, for one thing. One of the joys of reading a newspaper is turning from page to page and being surprised what is on the pages. The suspense is destroyed by excessive summarizing.

So I'd hope that after decent consideration, the Times would go back to putting news on Page 3. In the meantime, I hardly read it. Most days, I don't even glance at it.

We had a better local staff when they had more opportunities for prominent display in the paper. I hate to throw out all the design work that's been done, but the paper, in my view, ought to look more like it was designed when Otis Chandler was in charge.