THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 12, 1995 TAG: 9502100034
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
The subject at hand is CDs, and I'm not talking music. It's Business Weekly's new listing of certificates of deposit that has readers in a huff.
Up until two Mondays ago, the chart labeled ``CDs and Money Markets'' included annual yields and minimum deposits at as many as 25 area banks, S&Ls and credit unions.
On Jan. 30, along with a face lift, Business Weekly got a fancy new listing labeled Hampton Roads Money Monitor, along with an INFOLINE number for the latest data.
Total number of institutions: one. Paine Webber was listed the first week, Commerce Bank the next.
Dozens of readers have called in response to this ``improvement,'' and it wasn't to say thanks.
``The new CD chart is affecting me financially,'' said John Mesick, a retired Motorola employee living in Norfolk. ``Before you could sit down and compare rates. Now you have to blindly call every bank.''
Another typical caller was T.C. Goodrich of Virginia Beach. A retired Texaco manager, he looks after his father-in-law's investments and helps advise his married children.
For people like himself, said Goodrich, the CD listing is ``the most important feature for usefulness that The Virginian-Pilot offers us.'' And a listing of one, in print or via INFOLINE, is no help at all.
The timing is particularly bad, he added, because the Fed just raised short-term interest rates a hefty half a percent.
Why the abbreviated list? Up until two weeks ago, the CD listing was compiled by an editorial assistant from information provided by each of the banking institutions.
The list that debuted Jan. 30 is a paid advertisement. That is, the banks, S&Ls and credit unions must pay to be included in the chart, which is compiled by Mortgage Market Information Services near Chicago.
The startup has been slow, but Business Weekly editor Ted Evanoff expects a to have a ``solid chart'' in the next few weeks. Tomorrow's list will be longer and it should keep growing, he said.
``The Chicago outfit did this successfully with our mortgage rate charts last fall,'' he said, ``and we anticipated they'd have equal success with the CD, money market and consumer loan charts.''
Evanoff has talked to more disgruntled readers than I have. ``Few have CDs coming due in the next few weeks, so they don't need immediate rate comparisons to find an acceptable rollover,'' he said.
Most, he said, are willing to wait a few weeks and give the new listing a chance.
Great, but meanwhile there's a void here. Obviously it would have been better not to take something away, even temporarily, that readers value.
REAL LIFE DEBUTS. Last Sunday, a new section was born and a not-so-old one faded into oblivion.
Reader-wise, Hampton Roads Woman folded with barely a ripple. The few calls we did get were concerned about the Sew Simple column; that's moved to the Thursday Daily Break.
Several readers thanked us for the new Sunday section, Real Life. Robert James of Norfolk, a Navy officer, had a particular reason for being grateful; he was embarrassed to read the advice columns Sundays in Hampton Roads Woman.
``I always felt kind of funny reading the woman's section in a restaurant,'' said James. ``I think everybody reads Ann Landers, but it's more comfortable to read it in a section with the name Real Life.''
GREEDY GRETEL. Once upon a time. . . actually, twice a month, we run a tell-me-a-story feature in the Family Life section.
At least two readers objected to last Tuesday's tale, ``Clever Gretel.'' It was about a young servant who prepares a lavish dinner for guests, eats it all herself, then covers her tracks with some artful lies.
``The child in the story was neither clever nor obedient,'' said a Norfolk grandmother. ``She was deceitful and disobedient. The story has no positive or redeeming qualities. I wouldn't think of sending this to my granddaughter.''
Joan Hamby, mother of a 4th grader, said it should have been titled ``Gretel the greedy, lying girl.''
``The only thing I could use this story for is to open a discussion on character,'' said Hamby, a Virginia Beach resident. ``Somebody needs to check more carefully what is being promoted to our children.''
MEMO: Call the public editor at 446-2475, or send a computer message to
lynn(AT)infi.net. by CNB