Crossword creator vows changes

Newspapers can be fun — and infuriating

There was a time when newspapers were no fun.

Looking back 100 years in The Spectator, there were not yet any “funny papers,” or “funnies” — what we today call comic strips.

Also, there were no games. No puzzles. No diversions. No word jumbles. No Sudoku. No crosswords. No jokes. Today, we have all that and more. In today’s paper, you’ll find word puzzles such as Octagon Word, Cryptorelated, Quote in a Box, Hidden Quote, Wonderword, QuoteAcrostic, and three crossword puzzles, plus Sudoku, a word jumble and two dozen comic strips.

It’s all fun and games. An entire newspaper section is devoted to it.

The first crossword puzzle appeared in the New York World in 1913, but they didn’t in The Spectator until the 1930s. Comics arrived in The Spectator in 1923.

Since then, diversions have multiplied. Our strength has always been in local news, investigations, storytelling, and connecting our community, but we know the value of lighter f are, just plain fun, and let’s face it, brain exercise. Readers love it all. The problem for editors is that readers sometimes love it too much, and everything must come to an end. Times change.

And so it was with the “North of 49” crossword, which was recently discontinued in The Spectator after the creator retired. Some newspapers are rerunning old North of 49 puzzles, but The Spectator has replaced it with a new one: the Colossal Canada crossword.

It has been an unpleasant transition for some readers, and many have complained to the creator and to editors. Many readers find the new one too difficult.

The author, Kelly Ann Buchanan, has written the following note to readers:

“Thank you for your feedback on Colossal Canada Crossword. As it’s a brand new crossword, we knew there would be growing pains. In the next few weeks I’ll be fine-tuning the puzzle based on your comments. I will make the puzzle easier, more Canadian, and with less ‘pop-culture’ references. You should see these changes by mid-December, so please hang in there.”

There is a pretty good chance my predecessors had the same issue when they first introduced North of 49 or made other changes. They certainly took it on the chin when they first replaced earlier comics with Mary Worth, Rex Morgan or Gasoline Alley, and took it even harder when they were replaced by more modern strips.

All editors know that comics are notoriously difficult to change once they are established.

Perhaps that’s why a comic strip such as Blondie, which was created in 1930, is still published today in The Spectator. Or perhaps it’s just a great comic strip that has managed to endure for almost a century?

The human reluctance to change, whether it’s readers or editors, has certainly played a role.

Still, we all know change is inevitable. Our job is to make it as painless as possible, and we shall keep trying.