A Note From the Publisher

The enraged caller was barking expletives at me after declaring he had documented many instances of liberal bias in the Tucson Weekly. I was shocked, shocked, I tell you.

Finally, he blurted, "And you can cancel my prescription."

I tried to be helpful. "Have you thought about doubling your dosage instead?"

Calls like that one are easy. It's tougher when people ask us to make our type more legible.

Way too many people in journalism are reluctant to change. Some of these characters still sport wingtips and pork-pie hats. Their way of responding to the problem of small type would be to order the promotions department to buy 10,000 pairs of reading glasses, and mail a free pair to any person complaining about the type.

Not so with Jimmy Boegle. He's our editor. This guy is procrastination's worst enemy.

Boegle's "get-it-done-now" attitude is why you now have in your hands the inaugural edition of the redesigned Tucson Weekly, now celebrating 20 years of continuous publication. It's sleek and easier to read, and the content is more focused.

I'm not surprised. Boegle, 29, is an honors graduate from Stanford University, where he was projects editor for the student newspaper. Later, in a brief buttoned-down life, he was a reporter for The Associated Press and an editor at the Daily Sparks (Nevada) Tribune.

Boegle developed an interest in alternative weeklies while interning at the Reno News & Review. (These publications, more than 100 of them across the nation, are called "alt weeklies" because they are aimed at providing an alternative to the predictable daily disappointments.) He became editor at the News & Review and then moved on to Las Vegas CityLife, where he was named news editor. We coaxed him to Tucson in January 2003.

Boegle explains the methodology behind the redesign in a Q&A article in this issue.

Now that you know the brains behind this operation, feel free to contact Boegle with your thoughts. But don't expect him to refund your "prescription."