 Ann Coulter |
If you live in Tucson, Ariz., you won’t be reading columnist Ann Coulter in your local daily newspaper any more.
The Arizona Daily Star dropped the popular WorldNetDaily commentator because, the editor and publisher says, “many readers find her shrill, bombastic and mean-spirited.”
In a column announcing a wide range of changes in the paper’s opinion pages yesterday, Editor and Publisher David Stoeffler revealed that the paper was making the change.
“Many readers find her shrill, bombastic, and mean-spirited,” the new executive at the paper wrote. “And those are the words used by readers who identified themselves as conservatives.”
Taking her place in the Star will be former Washington Times editorial page editor Tony Snow, host of “The Tony Snow Show” on Fox News Radio and “Weekend Live With Tony Snow” on the Fox News Channel.
Stoeffler has been at the paper just nine weeks. He said the paper had received about 300 e-mails on a recent redesign, and many were negative. So the Star is shifting back to “more words” and a less fancy design.
“Running a newspaper is something like building a three-legged stool,” Stoeffler explained. “We need to understand and satisfy a broad audience. Through a combination of market research and regular contact, we come to know what readers want.”
The changes instituted at the paper, he wrote, are the result of “a lot of behind-the-scenes work aimed at making the Arizona Daily Star a better newspaper.”
He added, “we’ve decided that syndicated columnist Ann Coulter has worn out her welcome.”
“These changes are part of an overall effort to better serve our readers and improve our journalism,” he explained.
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