Madam, - I am sure you will receive many congratulatory letters on the new-look, expanded Irish Times. However, in a world where time seems to be shrinking, spare a thought for those of us who are struggling to keep our heads above an ever-rising tide of inserts, pull-outs, special reports, study guides, add-ons, etc.
As we wade to our green bins through a sea of newsprint, guiltily discarding unread supplements, ignored leading articles, unsolved crosswords, and barely scanned Letters pages, be aware that we're "not waving, but drowning". - Yours, etc,
NOREEN LYNCH, Casimir Road, Harold's Cross, Dublin 6W.
Madam, - I am somewhat underwhelmed by your latest re-design. I do not like the new font being used for your headlines, and the increased use of a sans-serif font, particularly for the "In short" reports, diminishes the paper's air of authority. To my mind, a serious broadsheet should be typeset with extensive use of serif fonts.
While the Opinion section has expanded, there seems to be an awful lot of white space on the first two pages, in contrast to the traditional layout of the Letters page.
On a more positive note, I like the idea of your new Gallery section, but feel that the addition of "celebrity" photos is completely unnecessary. The back page of newspaper headlines is a nice touch, but the reproduction of some of them is unclear, and translations of the non-English headlines would be greatly appreciated. Another positive: the chess problem has received some attention, resulting in a much clearer diagram. - Is mise,
LEO TALBOT, Moy Glas Way, Lucan, Co Dublin.
Madam, A big thumbs-up for the new format. - Yours, etc,
LOCHLANN MAC A' BHÁIRD, Chapel Gate, Drumcondra, Dublin 9.
Madam, - Your latest price increase is disappointing for those of us who have been regular readers for over 50 years. More disappointing, however, is the standard of the paper. In particular, I fail to see the justification for the increase to €2 of the Saturday edition. It might be as well to remember that it is a newspaper you edit, not a features, property and motoring magazine.
In future my Saturday €2 will be spent on some thing else. - Yours, etc,
TERRY LILBURN, Churchfields, Milltown, Dublin 14.