DATE: Sunday, March 9, 1997                 TAG: 9703080004

SECTION: COMMENTARY              PAGE: J5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: LYNN FEIGENBAUM

                                            LENGTH:   91 lines

REPORT TO READERS OPINIONS GALORE ON MOVING THE OPINION PAGES

Why did you put the editorial pages in the local news section?

That question popped up frequently this week as the second round of changes (Part 2 of 2) swept The Pilot.

Of course, there was - as before - the full gamut of responses to the ``new Pilot,'' from the man who said there was so much to read now that he'd need an extra cup of coffee in the morning, to the woman who begged us to put everything back just the way it was - immediately!

Once again, editors, reporters and other Pilot employees staffed a phone bank and took reader calls for three days. The public editor's office got its share of feedback, too.

Readers applauded new or expanded features in the Hampton Roads (formerly MetroNews) section - i.e. the ``Whatever Happened To'' story updates and Monday's history focus, ``That Was Then.'' However, the section's new name had its detractors - a sort of post-Rhinos anti-regionalism backlash, I suspect.

There was positive feedback for the Sports section, though callers took advantage of the phone bank to put in their requests for more of everything - NASCAR, women's sports, even Spanish soccer broadcasts.

The expanded Business News section continued to generate plaudits. The revisions actually debuted two weeks ago but got off to a bumpy start when ``little'' things like gold and crude-oil prices got lost. The section now is ``great, great, great,'' said a faithful reader.

A number of readers are still coping with finding their favorite feature - weather, the People column - in a different place. We are, indeed, creatures of habit.

And that's certainly true for followers of the opinion pages, which made a fairly revolutionary move from the A section to the Hampton Roads section. These pages include editorials, editorial cartoons, letters, local columns and commentaries on U.S. and world affairs.

Typical comments from readers:

``The editorial pages belong with the national/international news. Please put them back and leave them there.''

``You're the only newspaper I've ever seen that has editorials in a local section. It just doesn't seem right.''

``It took me two days to find the editorial pages.'' (Oh, c'mon, two days? You weren't looking very hard!)

Reasons behind the shift were on last Sunday's front page, but it still took folks by surprise. To publisher Bruce Bradley, the change fits right in with the newspaper's commitment to focus on ``matters that are important to the community.''

By putting the editorial page in the local section, that commitment is reinforced. ``Strategically, it's a better fit than it was before,'' he said. ``If you look at what we do best, it's local, local, local.''

That goes for news content, also. Under its new Hampton Roads masthead, the local section has been expanded in both size and content, with a commitment to better cover the community.

``So it was logical to put a more heavily local editorial page into a section dedicated to local affairs,'' said editorial page editor Keith Monroe.

That ``heavily local'' content includes more editorials on regional and state topics. And editorials concerning U.S. and global affairs are pegged to issues that affect our lives, our pocketbooks and our large military community.

Also, the Perspectives or op-ed page is topped each day by at least one local columnist generally writing about, you guessed it, a local issue. There are more letters to the editor, more local Another View columns.

The key is, indeed, local, local, local.

And, no, this isn't the first newspaper to make such a ``daring'' step - the Portland Oregonian, which also pegs its editorials to what matters to the region, has been running the opinion pages in its metro news section for more than 15 years.

In Little Rock, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette editorial pages are in its local section. Same for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans.

I'd say the ``norm'' is what we get used to. Right now, we're used to looking for opinions in the back of the A section. In a couple of months, we're likely to forget they ever were there.

Mixed (yawn) feelings about the comics. Usually, a crossword botchup (yes, we had another one Tuesday) and comic changes generate more reader response - often in the hundreds - than anything else in the newspaper.

So I was surprised to get little feedback at the demise of the comic strip ``Mixed Media,'' which was replaced this week with another strip, ``Jump Start.''

An INFOLINE phone number was provided for feedback and Daily Break editor Eric Sundquist reports only 72 calls. The breakdown:

28 preferred ``Mixed Media.''

23 had unrelated comments, including calls for other strips like ``Baby Blues'' or unprintable expletives about ``Doonesbury.''

15 favored the change.

4 liked both strips.

2 were indifferent.

However you look at it, ``Mixed Media'' had less than a loyal following in Hampton Roads.

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