Does any paper still publish an old-time full agate page daily in a digital form?

When I took over as SE at my old paper, we reimagined our agate page with a Quote of the Day, a roundup of briefs, a local schedule, AP Sportlight, etc. and moved the in-season agate to the NFL, NBA, MLB, golf pages, etc. We kept a 2-column agate block for stuff like EPL, college scores, trannies, etc.

 

We decided to A/B(/C) test it in our Southeast markets to see what the response is, given agate is what we by far get the most complaints about. (Well, agate and TV listings being messed up, which sucks more when you don't have the power to change them.) Basically, agate is mostly on a template companywide, ordered the same way. If I want NHL agate in November or December, I can't move it up in order ahead of NBA and NFL, so you have to just leave more space to run more agate, and if there's not enough space, then NHL agate won't run.

What we're trying (still in the first month) is a QR code and short link in Raleigh, short links in Charlotte and Columbia, and short link with agate (which is all a day old because of afternoon deadlines) in Rock Hill and Myrtle Beach. We wanted to see what the response from readers was in different markets with different methods.

We've received zero agate complaints (or comments) so far. What used to be weekly gripes has become silence. Now, that could mean it's working ... or it could mean readers' print interest in agate has decreased. I'd like to hope it's the former, but I can't tell you with certainty.

 

You’ll find out in a week. Baseball starts in a couple of days.

 

Thanks. At least someone is trying something, which you can't say about 98 percent of the shops out there anymore.

 

Are you able to track web visits with any detail?

 

So help me God. Chad has an excellent point!!!

 

Because the old people who subscribe to newspapers don't use the internet.

 

If I still worked for a true daily, I would absolutely fight for a true agate page. That was my delight of working the Sunday desk during NFL season. I even worked in EPL (and sometimes Bundesliga if I had etwas Raum) in the scoreboard.