ATTN: DENVER readers! Keep Candorville in the Denver Post

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The Denver Post will stop carrying Candorville as of March 1 unless readers write in and ask them to keep it. When the Rocky Mountain News went out of business, the Denver Post absorbed all the RMN’s comics, including Candorville. Now they’re dropping many of the former RMN comics, including Candorville, possibly to see which ones the readers miss. If you’re a Denver Post reader (and ONLY if you’re a Denver Post reader or Denver resident please) write to comics@denverpost.com and politely ask them to keep Candorville. Tell them why they should keep it, and most importantly, give them location information (as specific as you’re comfortable with) so they know you live in Denver. They’re looking for your feedback, people, so give it to them. This is your chance to be heard.


Discussion (11)¬

  1. Teresa says:

    I just wrote to the Post on your behalf and I will do so again next week. Sorry I didn't know in advance. I saw the poll but assumed that all the tired and dated strips would finally be voted out, not that the clever and topical content would vanish. Silly me. They retained the ones furthest past their expiration dates.

    I also can't imagine how Blondie, Beetle Bailey, Peanuts, Luann, Adam, or the Family Circus made it into the top fifteen (unless dead people were voting). Therefore, I join you in declaring shenanigans on their poll.

  2. Teresa says:

    RESPONSE PART 2
    With the results of the survey we were able to keep comics and puzzles our readers said they wanted. We dropped those features that did poorly in the survey and kept the ones that did well.
    We try to have different comics and puzzles for different people – all ages. It's a very difficult balancing act to have strip for kids that adults hate and visa versa. Older people like their traditional strips and the younger adults can't stand the traditional strips. The only way we have of balancing this is to have a survey and weed away those that don't make the cut.

    We are very sorry that your favorites are gone but we couldn't continue with the size of the comics section.

    Again, I appreciate your taking the time to write.

  3. Teresa says:

    POST'S RESPONSE PART 1
    Thanks for writing. It's always hard to make a decision to cut features in the paper, but we have been running five pages of comics, puzzles and TV listings for the past year and needed to make some changes. We had 18,000 readers respond to our survey on comics and puzzles and eliminated those with the lowest readership. But we are keeping a tally of comments such as yours and will be analyzing that response as well. Our survey was in the paper 4-5 times on the front of our section over the course of two weeks, including a Sunday. All of our readers were included. Interstingly, only 6,000 responded by paper ballots and 12,000 responded electronically. Those people got out their laptops and BlackBerrys and voted – overwhelmingly.

    When the Rocky closed we picked up all of their strips and most of their puzzles in an effort to welcome those readers to the Post family. It was too many to sustain forever. It left us with too little space for stories and advertising- yes, advertising. We must have advertising to exist. I think most of our readers were aware when we doubled our comics size that we wouldn't be able to continue it forever.

  4. Teresa says:

    Hey, barely ten minutes and I got this response from a pnames@denverpost.com. Any misspellings are his, not mine. I'll post it separately (maybe in two parts) as it is long. In my letter I mentioned advertising and how they seemed to be catering to the "older" demographic – methinks they are a little sensitive on those subjects. In fact, he sounds downright whiny to me. Enjoy!!

  5. Mark says:

    I am surprised that you got a reply Alex. I emailed the Post on Sunday, gave them my name and address to show that I am a subscriber, and have heard nothing from them.

    I remember taking the survey on-line a few months ago and hoped that I could help retain some of my favorite comics. I wonder if they reported the actual results or if they reported the results they wanted (i.e., those that led to a certain type of comics) because I find it hard to believe that Peanuts is still in anyone's top 10.

    • Alex says:

      I am very tempted to agree about them fixing the survey. The Family Circus is some of the most sickening drivel ever committed to paper after all. If you want a response, you have to touch a nerve with those people. Apparently all it takes is to imply that they are indeed mortal.

      • AJK says:

        A common theme with the comics that were removed is that they almost all started in the RMN. As 3/1 marked the one year anniversary of the Rocky's demise, I suppose the Post felt it could ditch those comics. Sentimental, eh?

  6. AJK says:

    Very sorry to have missed your plea. Opened the paper this morning and no Candorville or Rudy Park. In place of these, they put up barkers saying that more space was available for advertising. We've been on the fence with the Post since last year frankly. We only kept it because RMN folded. But having them gut the comics section in favor of ads, rather than simply allowing an additional page for advertising was the last straw. Now, the Post is just a paper I used to get.

    I've bookmarked this site. If your strip is evenutally distributed in some other venue here in Denver, please be sure to mention so that we can support it.

    • Darrin Bell says:

      Thank you very much, I'm glad you've bookmarked the site. I'll be sure to mention if it shows up elsewhere in Denver.

      I hope you repeat what you've written to the Post, because it's not too late. Papers generally pay attention to feedback for a couple weeks after they drop comics.

      • Alex says:

        I wrote this in: A while ago, the AV Club did a feature on modern newspaper comics. They came to the conclusion that most of them were hopelessly out of touch, escapist. Reading your popularity poll result, I can't help but think that the segment of the population responding was primarily, to put it gently, "old people who read the comics every day and notice that a poll is being conducted" rather than "people who will continue to be living for more than 10 years, catering to whom is a much better business plan." That AV Club article mentioned one comic in particular as one to watch, Candorville. This comic had biting satire, solid writing and was also fun to read. It wasn't the mindless drivel one would expect would get cut. It was thought provoking and suffered from apparently only one flaw: Crusty old family circus readers didn't like it. I live in Thornton, and I have enjoyed starting my morning reading Candorville since the Rocky Mtn News first started running it on the 2nd page of Spotlight. Please consider bringing it back. Thank you for your time.
        Got this reply: Flaw in your arguement – 6,000 responses were by paper ballot mailed in. 12,000 were by computer. So many more of the younger people voted – the computer users.
        I am a old computer user and hope heartily to live longer that your 10 years…

      • AJK says:

        Yes, those thoughts were along while canceling the subscription to the paper. Perhaps that's cutting off your nose to spite your face, but seriously, gutting the comics page was the last straw. Case in point – a wreck occurred on a major highway here last week (mac truck fell over). The Post had a beautiful picture of it. Unfortunately the caption read something to the effect of "No information was available about the wreck."

        Whatever happened to sending someone to the scene and asking questions? Talk to the cops, maybe? Call the trucking company, perhaps? I find it ludicrous that a paper could publish the picture, but not have the wherewithal to also dig up the story behind it. If they didn't want to pay a reporter, couldn't they even find a blogger to provide some background? If you didn't care about the story, why did you bother to post the picture, dude? An ad would have been less insulting. Good riddance.