SUNDAY PRIMER….It’s not like anyone asked me, but since the LA Times is trying to figure out what to do with their Sunday Opinion Current section, here’s an idea.
First, dump the op-ed page. Five days a week is enough. Give Nick Goldberg Sundays off and run Kinsley’s column on Monday.
In its place, run a weekly “Primer” page, a full page feature about some subject currently in the news. Haven’t been following the Valerie Plame case and can’t make heads or tails out of all these recent stories about Miller and Cooper and Rove? Here’s the whole story from Day 1. Don’t know a trust fund from a sinking fund? Here’s the deal on how Social Security works. Ditto for the Downing Street Memos, bankruptcy, how the war in Iraq is going, aid to Africa, etc.
Don’t make it an idiot’s guide. Assign each week’s piece to a staff writer or some outside expert and produce intelligent pieces with a point of view ? not straight news ? aimed at smart people who need a refresher. There’s plenty of room for chronologies, maps, illustrations, charts, tables, and all the other graphic doodads that everyone loves.
In fact, why not ditch the Sunday editorial page while you’re at it and make this feature a double truck? I’ll bet your writers would love it, and your graphics people would salivate for the chance to lay out two full ad-free pages. Even your readers might like it! Hell, I follow the news pretty closely, and even at that I often wish there were somplace I could turn to in order to refresh my memory about stories that suddenly re-explode on the news pages.
Oh, and it would mean that Ramirez gets another day off too. Have I sold you yet?
