Ask the Post

Deborah E. Heard, assistant managing editor for Style, was online Monday, Aug. 27 at 2 p.m. ET to field your questions and comments about the new Style & Arts section.

A transcript follows.

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Deborah E. Heard: Good afternoon. Thanks for joining me to talk about the Style & Arts section. I'll dive right in and hope that you'll keep the questions coming.

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McLean, Va.: Ms. Heard. My concern is that this section will become less about "Style" and more about "Arts." That is, I am worried that it represents a retreat from traditional human-interest and light commentary for which the Style section is famous, and will instead become yet another outlet for pre-packaged propaganda from the entertainment industry.

Deborah E. Heard: This section will have more of an emphasis on Arts, but that doesn't mean we're retreating from the pieces you mention. The Style staff will continue to do those stories, some of which will appear in the Sunday section. A lot of others will appear weekdays in Style and some will appear on Sunday's A1 and in the Sunday magazine. As for the Arts focus, we're planning to give you smart, inventive, surprising stories -- not pre-packaged propaganda. By the way, feel free to send in story ideas to the style@washpost.com address or call 202-334-7535.

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20005: I am a daily subscriber to The Post. I don't like the combination of the arts and style sections. But The Post doesn't seem to care much about the subscribers' opinions from my view point. Such as when comic strips are added and deleted, format of crosswords change, etc. You always do what you want anyway. Why ask us? Will it change anything? No. Maybe when you don't have any subscribers -- you will take notice.

Deborah E. Heard: Yikes. I'm here answering questions because I do care what readers think. And over the past few months, I've collected lots of feedback from readers about the section and then incorporated some of those responses into my decision-making. The reality is that people disagree and it's impossible to give every individual what he or she wants. So I listen a lot and think a lot and make what I believe are smart choices. Of course, if I"m wrong, then I can make new decisions.

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New section: Overall, a good move. The Sunday style section wasn't much after the introduction of Sunday Source -- just Reliable Source, the humor contest, and the haikus, plus usually one substantive article. Makes sense to combine it with Arts. And I do like the Sunday Source, btw, but I know a lot of people really, really hate it.

Deborah E. Heard: Thanks.

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Silver Spring, Md.: Why do we always have to short-change art? Why couldn't you combine "sports" and "business" if you wanted to mush two sections together. There's too much emphasis on sports and not enough on arts.

Deborah E. Heard: I don't think we shortchange the arts. Now, on Sundays, you'll be getting more arts coverage than you have been because the combined section has more space that will be devoted to arts. Plus, it seemed natural to combine these two sections on Sunday because that coverage is combined Monday through Saturday.

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Reston, Va.: Why the change? I was disappointed that you dropped the Haiku feature and thought some of the other changes were rather pedestrian. Sorry, it just didn't come across to me as hipper, more personalized, better stories. . . sorry. I love reading The Post each day but find myself more and more involved with news online.

Deborah E. Heard: We combined the sections because we believed that we could give readers a stronger, fresher section. Monday through Saturday, the Style staff produces one section. On Sundays, the same staff was producing two. This way, all those resources can be combined. Plus, the two sections apart were very thin. This way, readers get a fat section that we hope demands and deserves attention.

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Silver Spring, Md.: I am very unhappy with the new Style and Arts section. As a Sunday only subscriber, my favorite part of the entire paper, not just the style section, was the Style Invitational. Nothing was better than a lazy summer reading the Invitational. As I read the new Style and Arts section I couldn't help but analyze each article in the section and come to the conclusion that NOTHING in yesterday's section was anywhere near as entertaining as the Style Invitational. Virtually every thing there could have been easily omitted to make room for the Invitational. I hope you will reconsider this move.

Deborah E. Heard: I too love the Style Invitational. I moved it to Saturdays for several reasons. For one, I wanted to focus this new section on coverage of culture and arts. Plus, lots of readers were already used to getting the Invitational on Saturdays. It was already appearing in the Sunday early edition that lands in stores on Saturday mornings and it's available online on Saturdays. One more thing: putting it on Saturday's page 2 means that the wonderful Bob Staake illustrations could always be in color. The Sunday page 2 is a black & white page.

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Crofton, Md.: Will you continue to devote an issue to a comprehensive list of the arts events for classical music, theater, art exhibits, dance, etc. for September through Decemeber 2007?

Also, I would like to submit an item. What is the deadline for this and where do I send it?

Thank you.

Deborah E. Heard: Yes. This year, the Fall Arts Preview section will appear on Sunday Sept. 9th, in addition to Style & Arts that week. I'm not sure about the deadlines for listings though. Pls contact Rachel Beckman (Beckmanr@washpost.com) and she can answer that.

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D.C.: I love many of your writers, like Gene Weingarten and Neely Tucker who have incredible original voices while remaining great reporters throughout their pieces. But...other stories sometimes seem to have a singular "snark element." It's almost as if it's a valued part of writing for Style. Is this one editor's voice coming through? Something that is encouraged in your staff? Just happens to be the style of many of your writers? I happen to prefer the non-snark style, as it seems to be a crutch rather than leaning on great writing and reporting. Thanks.

Deborah E. Heard: Snarkiness isn't my thing either. But sometimes a situation requires a tone and perspective that walks the line. And what's snarkiness to one reader is brilliant humor to another. I want the Style section to generate a range of emotions -- from empathetic weeping to sputtering laughter -- because we have a wide range of readers.

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Vienna, Va.: The Life Is Short feature was the first thing I read in the Sunday paper. Why are you killing it?

Deborah E. Heard: I decided to drop the haikus for several reasons. The volume of entries has declined dramatically over the years and those we were getting repeated familiar themes. I want the section to be fresh and surprising and I wasn't seeing that often enough in the haiku submissions. Plus, a lot of other sections of the paper now publish mini-essays. That said, if thousands of readers demand their return, we'll rethink the decision.

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From the Artists' Community: The piece that you did on the chair was clever because it covered "culture," "arts," and "ideas." But do you intend to feature the work of local artists in that section of "Style and Arts" in the future?

Deborah E. Heard: Definitely. That's a new weekly feature, created by art critic Blake Gopnik to do just what you've said. i.e. spotlight the work of professional artists and let them explain their process. We expect to showcase lots of local artists and artists who do all kinds of work.

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Silver Spring, Md.: The only reason you are doing this is to save money. It means one less section of the paper you have to publish. I don't like the chop job you did. Find another way or keep it the old way. It wasn't broke. Why tinker around with it.

Deborah E. Heard:

Actually, that's not right. When my bosses asked me to consider merging the sections, money was never part of the discussion. It was simply that we'd been doing the sections one way for a while and it was time to see if we could improve them. Many weeks, one section or the other was terrific. But we want to produce a terrific section every single week. Plus, readers have told us for years that there are too many sections in the Sunday paper so I don't see this as a bad thing at all.

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Arlington, Va.: Does Style have a full time video game reporter?

I've noticed that Jose Antonio Vargas, who writes about Madden and WoW, is covering politics now. Games to politics? Who's covering games now?

Deborah E. Heard: No, we don't. Too many needs and too few people. Instead, we've just hired a reporter -- Monica Hesse -- to write about all kinds of digital arts and culture for Style. Plus, the financial staff (Mike Musgrove in particular) writes a lot about video games and the Friday Weekend section features reviews of games.

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Washington, D.C.: I think the worries from those of us concerned for the Arts section is embedded in your last response where you only referred to the section as the "Style" section as opposed to "Style & Arts." How will this culture shift be addressed? Please include the arts!

Deborah E. Heard: Arts is and always has been an integral part or the Style section. We have an incredible staff of critics and writers devoted to arts and entertainment. That isn't going to change. As for my language, the arts writers are part of the Style staff, just as the feature writers are part of the Style staff. That's why I sometimes refer to Style rather than Style & Arts.

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Alexandria, Va.: I like the look of the new Style & Arts section, but there are two features that I really looked forward to every Sunday that have been dropped: Life is Short Haikus and Here & Now. Please reconsider these two features which contribute to making the Post unique.

Deborah E. Heard: Thanks for this. As I answered above, we discontinued Life Is Short because, based on submissions, the value of the feature had declined. But I'm keeping track of calls for its return, including a number of you who've written in today. I should add though that a number of readers have also told me that they're glad to see them go.

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Starbucks in G'town: There are five of us here in Starbucks who gathered to meet you online and send you questions. We have each sent a question dealing with the Post's coverage of DC area art galleries and so far you have ignored all of us.

Can you address the new section's policy and outlook on how it will cover our hometown's art galleries and artists?

Thank you

Deborah E. Heard: Well hello. You clearly type faster than I read. I've seen only a couple of questions about the galleries coverage; a a lot fewer than the Life is Short comments. The new section will indeed have coverage of local artists and local galleries. Check out the Studio feature. We're going to run one like that every week and we hope to get lots of submissions from local professional artists. Contact style@washingtonpost.com or art critic Blake Gopnik or arts editor John Pancake or arts editorial aide Rachel Beckman.

Plus, we're going to use the centerspread of the section -- the one that featured the Washington memorials yesterday -- to showcase art.

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Washington, D.C.: I think the mix of arts and traditional style-type features works pretty well. But I was surprised to see two full pages of ads on pages 3 and 4, very close to the beginning of the section. Sort of clunky from a design point of view. Such material should go at the end of the section, not in the middle of content. I understand the need for ads but this made it look like the ad people are really in charge.

Deborah E. Heard: I'll pass this along to our advertising department.

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Silver Spring, Md.: Rather than making these changes and then springing them on us in a "take it or leave it way - we know what's best," why not have a "Readers' Advisory Council" or some such group to review suggested changes and offer insight and feed back before you leap off a cliff and ruin our paper?

Deborah E. Heard: We did do focus groups with readers. Over two nights, we brought in four groups of people who regularly read the Sunday newspaper. Some of those were intense Arts readers; some Style; some both; some neither. And every single group liked the section and thought it was a great idea that was long overdue.

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Mount Vernon area, Va.: Why is the bridge column being eliminated on Sunday, following its disappearance on Saturday?

Deborah E. Heard: I took the Bridge column out of Style & Arts because I was trying to give the section a strong cultural focus and I wanted to make room for some new things. And, while bridge has a passionate audience it is not as broad as that for theater or music.

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Washington, D.C.: Everything but Art?

The Washington Post's new "Style & Arts" section made its debut yesterday.

I couldn't find any art reviews in it.

Where's the art? Or are we to expect the usual minimal coverage of D.C. area art galleries?

Deborah E. Heard: There will be art reviews in the Sunday section. Lots of them. But in this particular edition, I wanted to use the space to give good treatment to Phil Kennicott's relevatory memorials story and Bill O'Leary's incredible photographs. We can't do everything in every edition but give us a month and then send us an email (style@washpost.com) if you still believe we've ignored art exhibits.

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Two thumbs up: I really like the change. Style seemed to slim down to nearly nothing after Sunday Source launched, making those great feature stories easy to miss. Now the two sections can lend each other some heft. Nice job.

Deborah E. Heard: Thanks.

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Washington, D.C.: On Friday, I was worried when Robin Givhan's column was missing from my bus ride. Please tell me her fasion column was just on break this week and that she'll write both the fasion column and the new culture one! I was excited to see her byline on Sunday morning, but worried about my Friday dose of fasion!

Deborah E. Heard: Robin will continue to cover fashion, including the runway shows, profiles and trend pieces, but she can't do a regular Friday column and a Sunday column. Her Sunday column will focus on culture, but fashion, of course, will play a part.

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Rockville, MD: I am extremely disappointed by your decision to discontinue the Bridge column in your new section. Why is it that everytime you folks do some sort of reorganization, we lose another day of bridge -- first Saturday, now Sunday?

Deborah E. Heard: Thanks for this. But I also have to say that there are people who ask why we run bridge as many days as we do.

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Alexandria, Va.: Just a note to say that I'm looking forward to seeing how the new section develops, but so far it looks great! Style was getting too thin, Arts seeming perhaps a bit disjointed. Given that there's overlap between the two areas anyway, I think the under-one-roof approach makes good sense!

Any chance we'll be reading more of Mr. "Stoover" any time soon? (No, this is not his mother.)

Deborah E. Heard: Thanks for this. Hank will return this fall. We've missed him too.

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Liking the new look!: Nice that you've taken the risk of rethinking the layout and recombining the elements. I look forward to seeing where it goes from here.

Deborah E. Heard: Thanks. Style's design director, Martha Wright, did that great work. .... My times up. Thanks for joining me and please keep reading.

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