Instead of a Newspaper, I Get a Shopper

I had so much hope after the Henrico and Chesterfield TDs were announced. I thought we were going to get real weekly newspapers that would help me connect with my community and get involved in the political and social life of my county.

Instead, I get another lousy shopper, as if the richmond.com "newspaper," and the pathetic Sunday Direct were anything more than vehicles to deliver boatloads of shopping inserts and advertisements with the softest of soft news, like recipes or some light entertainment press release.

For mysterious reasons that probably have something to do with ad sizes, I get a narrow broadsheet Henrico TD dated Oct. 30 in the same bundle as a perfect square tabloid Henrico TD. Why two? The lead story in the broadsheet is the Harvest Festival at Meadow Farm and the Highland Games at RIR, told in photos. Inside, more Harvest Time photos, a crossword puzzle, a word search, and horoscopes. The ads are all house ads except for a furniture store and Kroger's, so I assume this paper was designed to deliver the same Kroger's full page ad that is in the daily.

Not to mention there are also ad inserts for Kroger's, Martin's and Food Lion. Does anyone really shop by weekly sales anymore?

Okay, maybe the news is in the tabloid. On the cover is the Pumpkin Rush, also part of the Harvest Festival.

There's an editorial promising future stories about "citizens and events...festivals and games...memorials and parades...volunteer organizations...agents of change...triumphs and movements of the schools...perspectives on trends and developments." What, no politics, no government, no economic development?

There's a story about a musical at the Cultural Arts Center, flu shots, Henrico Christmas mother, a concert at a church, a community calendar, a press release from Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, the valor awards,  a high school football game, and the journalism I hate most in the world -- the one question posed to a group of people, which is entirely their answers and headshots. In this issue, five children tell what they are going to dress up as for Halloween. Oh good gosh.

The same day I picked up this crap in a plastic bag on my lawn, I found the Oct. 13 Sunday Direct, getting soggy on another part of my lawn. The cover story is a black bean soup recipe and a woman celebrating her 100th birthday by hang gliding. No photo. Here's the weekly calendar of light entertainment events and then...what? WHAT? Five broadsheet pages of classified ads for cars!! Followed by two pages of miscellaneous ads. That's the Sunday Direct.