Return of the crossword

I should have known better.
In the What’s On section of September 11’s paper we wrote, in an article above the crossword and horoscope, that we were considering dropping them and seeking readers’ views on the possibility.
The volume of What’s On news sent in to the Mid Somerset Series has grown dramatically in recent years and we wanted to respond to readers’ requests to give it more space.
Only one reader asked us to keep the crossword, while no one asked to keep the horoscope.
So we decided to drop them as part of the paper’s redesign and use the space to publish more local What’s On information from the issue of October 9.
The redesign received almost universal approval, much to our relief, but then complaints began to trickle in from crossword fans who missed their weekly brain teaser and wanted it restored.
As I said here a few weeks ago, journalists must always remember that their job is to serve the readers and respect how deeply established the newspaper is as part of the community.
So from next week the crossword will return with a new regular berth on the Jack Blandiver page.This way we can maintain the increase of space for What’s On and restore a long-standing feature that proved more popular than we thought.
Philip Welch