The first month of life at the Tucson Weekly under new ownership has been a little strange at times, but hey, we made it into June, even with the challenges of working with new people, temporarily having two offices and just the general issues that come with new systems and ways of doing things. Nearly everything has worked out just fine, with a few minor stumbles here are there, but then there are the movie times.

Yes, there have been some changes in content here and there, but yet again, it’s a change to the movie times that has people upset. An emailed letter I received while on vacation this weekend used a long allegory about town criers to claim that I’ll likely lose my job over the disappearing film times. Someone else called the office to repeatedly call me an idiot. A hand-written letter that came to our new office sort of implied that I should be killed for getting rid of those listings, but I’m choosing not to read it that way.

I mentioned this before, but apparently it didn’t get through, so I’ll repeat it: our new production schedule (not my decision) won’t allow us to run film times anymore. Despite what the guy who somehow thinks it would make perfect sense for me to lose my job over this thinks, there are plenty of places to find out what movies are playing where, even if you don’t have a computer or smart phone (calling the theater, for example, which I recognize isn’t the most convenient thing, but sorry). But even considering that the times were frequently wrong and there are far better and easier ways to get the info, I would run movie times if I could, mostly not to get angry phone calls on a regular basis, but also because it is apparently a service we can provide someone in our community. Somewhat cranky and easy-to-anger someones in our community, but nevermind that for now.

Unless something changes with how we’re printing the paper now, the film times are gone in print for now (we still pay to have those listings on our website, which is a great place to find film times, honestly). Again, not my choice, but if I can be a focal point for your somewhat peculiar anger, I guess that’s the cost of being the editor of the Weekly in 2014.

This article appears in Jun 5-11, 2014.

The editor of the Tucson Weekly. I have no idea how I got here.

17 replies on “Editor’s Note”

  2. I am a Neanderthal and even I can get the movie times via the internet. The Az Daily Star runs them too. The person who complained is dumb. Probably the same people who love the marijuana stories.

  3. I realize it MAY be in the print editions, but I’ve been looking around for a current “Media Watch” column online. No luck so far. It may be that there ISN’T anything to report about media in Tucson, but even that should get some mention!

    BTW, Dan…great show with Chris on the Daily Double today.

  5. People like to crab about stuff because they can. Its just plain dumb and unproductive. It would be a perfect world if people just stopped tooting their own horns just for the sake of tooting!

  7. Also missing is the Week Events. What used to be “City Week Picks” has become one event and hasn’t been updated for 2 weeks. And the “Pick of The Week” is also last weeks stuff. So the new plan is to not be credible?

  8. Yes, that is the plan MrUltimate…we got together in a room and decided that we didn’t feel like being professional or having integrity as journalists. It was a surprisingly quick conversation. What’s a soul going for these days, anyhow?

    Actually, last week, we just wanted to spotlight that particular event and this week, the articles were skipped in the upload for some reason (like Media Watch, apparently). We’re trying some new things with City Week and some other features, just because they haven’t been tinkered with in over a decade. You can decide on your own regarding “credibility.”

  10. Thanks for the input, SonoranWinds. Could you forward me the behavioral standards guide for my position?

  11. Dan G:

    Thanks for getting the missing links fixed up. (Any chance you can do the same over at AZPM?)

  12. People can’t really be complaining about not having movie times, can they? Like this isn’t really happening in real life is it? What year is it right now? If I don;t know what time The Music Man is playing at the ol’ drive in picture show, how will I know when to put down my malt and leave the hop, daddy-o?

  13. So, they finally got rid of the Editor’s note? I would think you could have an online note, even if they won’t let you have one in your paper…portent for things to come?

  14. Rancho: The editor’s note will be back. Just out for a few weeks while we work on the redesign.

  15. you mean i’m finally going to have to resort to reading all these self-help books i’ve been avoiding all these years? continued good luck with the redesign, the changes i’ve noticed so far have been interesting.

  16. Hey Dan, I’ve been in the news biz since my old man bought the weekly newspaper in my hometown when I was 5 years old. Call ya and raise ya.

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