"What we're witnessing is nothing less than a wholesale restructuring of the news business - one that has been evolving slowly for a number of years but is now proceeding at Mach speed. Twenty years ago, the business was dominated by morning dailies like The Post. On the broadcast side were the three major television networks and their local affiliates. Both newspapers and networks organized themselves to deliver news products designed to appeal to large audiences so that they could sell advertising to high-volume retailers and mass merchandisers," he wrote.

But the Internet changed everything. News delivery companies had to figure out what niches they could fill to augment their newspapers' reach.

Business at The Salt Lake Tribune is no different. In addition to ramping up our Web site and offering other sites such as www.utahsright.com and www.tribpreps.com, The Tribune has designed and launched Afternoon Buzz, a free afternoon tabloid distributed near popular public transportation stations.

Designed to be read in 20 minutes - the average time for a rider on TRAX - the publication boils down the best of breaking national and world news, local breaking news, business, fun facts, puzzles and sports.

In order to make sure a staff of four people could produce this five days a week, the section size is limited and the individual pages are the same every day. There are defined spaces for advertisements and so much space for stories, photos, graphics and puzzles.

Editor Scott Sherman reads his Salt Lake Tribune on the TRAX ride to the office in the morning to get a running start on what could develop. He puts together an initial budget about 7 a.m. Working from that and subsequent budgets, Line Editor Suzanne Ashe rewrites and boils down Tribune and wire service stories to a standard three or four paragraphs. Copy Editor William Hampton edits the stories and puts on headlines while Designer Ashley Tarr puts the stories on the pages and adds photos or other artwork. The frantic dance continues to the 12:30 p.m. deadline.

So far, they joke, they still like each other.

Josh Awtry, assistant managing editor for online and presentation, who shepherded the publication from conception to birth, explained, "From the beginning, one of the most important things for us in Buzz was the right tone. This is a tabloid that we wanted to talk to the reader, and not at them. And hopefully, readers can see that difference right off the bat. Serious headlines are written with weight. . . . And we have a lot more fun in the tone of our lighter stories, too."

Awtry said Buzz has to be as current and as fresh as possible. "The slick look of the publication is highly templated so that it's easy to switch content as news changes."

The secret ingredient, Awtry pointed out, is the staff. "In them, we've chosen a mix of people with daily newspaper experience, but also a lot of experience outside of the newspaper business - I can't say enough good things about the distance they've come in such a short time. Buzz should feel and sound different from what you're used to, and act as a great companion for the depth in The Tribune."

A good suggestion: I got a call this week from a woman upset over the missing late-night TV listings in the Sunday TV booklet. She had a great suggestion on how to still save space in the book and include the late night schedule.

She said the daytime TV listings are repetitive since they involve so many programs that air five days a week at the same time. "Just print one daytime schedule and include the midnight to 3 a.m. listings for those of us who have insomnia or late-shift jobs."

That's an idea I am passing along to the Newspaper Agency Corp., (the company that sells the ads, prints and distributes both The Tribune and Deseret Morning News) where the TV booklet is produced.

---

* The Reader Advocate's phone number is 801-257-8782. Write to the Reader Advocate, The Salt Lake Tribune, 90 S. 400 West, Suite 700, Salt Lake City, Utah 84101. reader.advocate@sltrib.com.