TV Blog

By tiredaas

March 26, 2008 9:35 AM | Link to this

I too was one of the ones who thought it was a mistake - or that somebody swiped my Show World. The Statesman is the worst newspaper in a major market in the country already. Ever notice how much advertising the Statesman has to sell per column inch - abysmal. Now I am glad to know that I don't even have to buy the Sunday paper. Wonder what advertisers are going to think now.......

By Skatie

March 25, 2008 2:28 PM | Link to this

I doubt the Amer Statesman cares about all these unhappy customers but I just had to include my disapointment. That was the one and only reason I purchased a Sunday paper. after two weeks on no Show world and one week of searching thru the pile at the store - I now realize, it wasn't a fluke. sad sad day. and I hate hate hate the online tv search.

By Cathy & Tim

March 23, 2008 6:38 PM | Link to this

We too are quite disappointed to lose printed TV listings for the whole week in a convenient format. This amounts to a loss in value for your services without a corresponding reduction in price. The on line listings only provide a few hours at a time and it is really impossible to browse through the week and plan limited TV viewing time. We are very disappointed in you.

By Mary

March 18, 2008 2:51 AM | Link to this

There was a time, when I was living elsewhere, when the Statesman was considered one of THE BEST newspapers in the nation. After moving here, I realized that time has taken its toll on the Statesman; there are others in the state that are better, let alone in the nation. One of the very few features that held appeal for me was the Show World supplement. It helped one determine whether one night might be a better TV night than another, one program better than another, etc. But now, ugh! I find less and less that interests me in this paper. I'm not a person who watches much TV, and being able to see at the beginning of the week whether there might be anything worth watching made my life easier.

First, it was the pathetic programming experts at the networks. Then, it was the writers strike. Now, it's the lack of a weekly viewing guide in the paper. Who knows how many more dollars I'll be spending at Barnes & Noble?

By Daisy

March 17, 2008 9:54 PM | Link to this

It looks like the next things going are the advertising inserts. Target and Best Buy both had notices that there would not be an insert in the Sunday paper. So now I’ll have to be more active in finding things that I “just have to have” instead of passively flipping through inserts. Chances are I won’t go to the trouble of looking at the web sites to see the weekly ad.

By Daisy

March 17, 2008 9:52 PM | Link to this

I, too, was surprised to see the Show World go away. But I wasn't as upset as many of the above because I thought it was not as useful as it could be. Many times, the movies I would want to read a summary of, were not include in the Show World movie description section because the paper did not have enough room to include summaries of all of the movies. Likewise for the daily descriptions of evening shows ... there would be new shows in the listing, but the summaries would be of reruns ... not useful (did anyone really need to know the summary of the M*A*S*H that was showing? I think not). I’ve found the TV guide on MSN to be very user friendly http://tv.msn.com/tv/guide#

By Larri

March 17, 2008 6:29 PM | Link to this

The first Sunday I didn't get a show world I thought there was a mistake and we missed it all week. My family was aggrevated that I didn't try to get a replacement paper thinking it was just an error. The next week I went through the Sunday paper at the convienent store. It wasn't there so I went through alot of papers. A man walked in and saw me and asked if I had found the show world yet and I said I had been through all of them and no. He was very upset and yelled out to his wife that none of the papers had it. My husband called the statesman and complained. The person told him to look it up on line. He told them we are dial up and it is a nightmare to go to a site like austin360. And the great thing about the show world was the ease at finding what you wanted and the articles and that isn't on line. He told the statesman then if you feel like we should be able to get this information on line I guess we don't have to buy a paper any more because we can get that info on line too.

By rockhound

March 17, 2008 12:57 PM | Link to this

What a shock! I have been a full subscriber for over 10 years and I have always enjoyed reading my Show World. I find the TV listings to be an indispensable resource to quickly and easily determine what I want to watch for the week. In addition, the Show World provided unique and insightful articles found nowhere else. It was fun to read these articles from time to time when TV programming was weak.

I think the general consensus is that you had a great and successful product with Show World. It does not make any economic sense to dispose of such a successful product when the removal of said product does not net the company a substantial gain. Show World has established a proven reputation in the community as a valuable and indispensable tool for obtaining information quickly, much more so than competing products or services. I understand that as a company you will always be faced with cost-cutting decisions. However, was it really necessary to remove an entire Section from your Sunday paper, especially one with such an infallible track record? Couldn't you have achieved the same cost-savings through some other means? The Newspaper Association of America just recently published a great article titled "5 Ways to Save", summarizing that by cutting back on consumables and maintaining existing equipment, operations departments can reduce costs, without sacrificing the deliverables to the consumer. Did your folks in market research happen to consider any of the many useful suggestions in this article prior to making such a knee-jerk reaction as pulling the plug on the windfall of your Sunday paper?

My recommendation to the AA Statesman is to carefully reconsider your decision to discontinue the Show World Section of your paper. Perhaps a better approach would be to send a mailer to each subscriber (or just include a card with each delivered paper) explaining that certain "adjustments" will have to be made to the paper. Give the consumer a chance to tell you what features they like, dislike, read, favor, or do not use. You could even gain some insight as to how they would like to see their newspaper modified so that it would be considered one of the best and most revered newspapers in the State.

By Jake

March 15, 2008 5:52 PM | Link to this

Glad to see we're not alone in this; we cancelled our subscription to the Statesman because of discontinuation of Show World. Bring it backi!

By patricia adams

March 15, 2008 9:59 AM | Link to this

Remember me- the one whose newspaper is left in the street! at 81 years of age everything is a long way!I looked forward to the show world tv supplement. carefully marked my weeks viewing especially the pbs shows. The Corpus Christi newspaper has a wonderful supplement readable and newsy, compact form but I live in Austin area. I am switching to the Wall Stree Journal. Please stop my Statesman and return what is left of my subscription money. Telephone is 512 288 3434.

By Alan A.

March 8, 2008 4:12 PM | Link to this

Sure do miss SHOWWORLD ---- As a Long time subscriber (since 1968), we have always looked at it as a primary reason to subscribe. Please re-instate !!!!

By Stephen Rodi

March 6, 2008 10:08 PM | Link to this

This is my first post on any blog anywhere. I am an end-of-week later commer to this blog's complaints about the demise of Show World. But I have written editor Rich Oppel and managaing editor Fred Zipp directly about my unhappiness. My message to them included almost verbatim many of the observations made by others here. My summary comment: "The alternatives you offer, best I can tell, provide me little or nothing of what I used Show World for. At best, they offer me partial info whose acquisition requires a great deal of surperfluous work on my part. They are incomplete and very inconvenient. I have no idea why, if given a choice, any person looking for weekly t.v. info would choose one or a collection of your alternatives over Show World. Hence, I cannot believe that the decision to cancel Show World had anything to do with "responding to the desires and preferences of subscribers."

Oppel responded with a polite note which re-stated the company line, but also contained a tiny touch of 1950's McCarthy chill by repeatedly referring to my position at my employment, something I had not mentioned. He obviously did some sleuthing on me before answering! I have no idea why.

By the way, go to the Show World blog entries at "Snowed In" to see the precedent recorded there that gets one a 2-week credit on a yearly subscription to the Statesman if one complains that renewal was on the assumption one would be getting Show World for a year, among other services, and that the Statesman has now violated that part of the renewal contract.

By corvette

March 3, 2008 3:38 PM | Link to this

Cannot BELIEVE there is no more ShowWorld in the Sunday paper, that was one of my little pleasures of looking to see what I want to watch for the week, at an easy glance, not having to go to my COMPUTER for a 6 Hr. max time frame-if you can get the damn thing to download, then if you print it out, the font is SO SMALL you CAN'T EVEN READ IT !!!-I DO NOT want to go to my COMPUTER every time I want to see what's on TV !!! Unbelievable assumption there Austin American Statesman....Been a paying 7 day PAPER subscriber for years-IF I WANTED MY NEWS AND INFORMATION FROM A COMPUTER I WOULDN"T BE A SUBSCRIBER TO THE DAILY PAPER DELIVERY !!!!!
BRING SHOWWORLD BACK TO THE PEOPLE WHO PAY FOR A PAPER !!!!!!

By Wayne Fickel

March 3, 2008 1:25 PM | Link to this

My wife and I are very disappointed with your decision to discontinue the show world section of the paper. Who wants to go to their computer (if they have one) to find out what is going to be on TV and certainly they don't want to call some phone number to get TV information. How absurd!! In my opinion you actually should have expanded it to include day time listings for each day. Your reasons for discontinuing are weak and actually could apply to your entire paper. You might check the Fort Worth Star Telegram to see what a real TV Guide should look like. Please reconsider.

By Bill C.

March 3, 2008 11:34 AM | Link to this

So, how much will my subscription price be reduced with the deletion of Show World? The price continually escalates and the paper grows smaller and smaller all the time!

By P.Moreno

March 3, 2008 11:27 AM | Link to this

I agree. The assumption is that everyone has access to e-mail, fax machines or the internet. And, if TV listings are best accessed by these means, then so can the rest of the newspaper's offerings. So why bother to subscribe to the print edition of this newspaper?

By Robbie

March 3, 2008 10:43 AM | Link to this

I am very frustrated by the Statesman's decision to discontinue printing Show World. This publication is one of the primary reasons I subscribe to the print version of the paper (yes, I can read the actual news online, and generally do). It is not convenient to log in to the computer to look up TV listings when you're trying to relax with your family to watch a program. If you want to save print costs, put the tons of ads or real estate promotions online. Bring back Show World -- the one piece of the Statesman I used all week.

By Peggy

March 3, 2008 10:38 AM | Link to this

I agree with Martha. Please reinstate Show World. The online download is a nightmare.

If you are deadset against Show World - at least print the full schedule for daytime on weekends. Then you could provide up to date info on game schedules.

If the owners want to kill interest in the Statesman - they picked a great way to do it.

By Raymond J. Hanson

March 3, 2008 9:57 AM | Link to this

I am at a loss for TV scheduling without the Showworld section. I have been unable to find any thing that shows the daytime or latenight schedules. It is too much of a drag to scan through the television guide to find different listings. In fact I canceled my subscription to the statesman, which I've had for probably 20 years or more just because you discontinued the showworld section. However, I would reinstate it if showworld returns.

By Raymond J. Hanson

March 3, 2008 9:57 AM | Link to this

I am at a loss for TV scheduling without the Showworld section. I have been unable to find any thing that shows the daytime or latenight schedules. It is too much of a drag to scan through the television guide to find different listings. In fact I canceled my subscription to the statesman, which I've had for probably 20 years or more just because you discontinued the showworld section. However, I would reinstate it if showworld returns.

By Caroline

March 3, 2008 9:45 AM | Link to this

As much as I appreciate DH's comments and TV picks, I really need the Show World to map out my weekly viewing schedule. What's on PBS this week? Who knows? Diane apparently didn't care. Unfortunately, it looks like I'll have to resort to TV Guide to make my choices.

By bosqueboy

March 3, 2008 2:13 AM | Link to this

I too would like to see Show World reinstated. I do use the internet, but my wife doesn't. the printed Show world is much more convenitent & easire to use. I have been an uninterrupted subscriber to The Statesman since September 1967.

By Martha Baltzer

March 2, 2008 8:25 AM | Link to this

Please appeal to your editors to reinstate the Show World supplement for TV because there are many subscribers who are technologically challenged or/and don't have computers to access this information.
Thank you.