Reader update: An improved AMNews

Improvements starting with this issue mark the first revision of a top-to-bottom redesign in mid-1998 of the AMNews print edition.

Editorial. May 1, 2000.

In the newspaper business we call them "jumps." Most readers know them as that thing that we do when we start an article on one page and finish it on another.

To us, jumps are often an unavoidable fact of life -- too much important information to fit on a not-big-enough page. To readers, jumps are often an irritation, one that grows exponentially the farther the distance between where an article stops and where it picks up again. At AMNews, that gap has been longest on stories that started on the front page. They picked up again way at the very back of the newspaper.

It's time for a change. Starting with this issue, page 1 stories jump to either page 2, or at the farthest, to page 4. The stories that are important enough to warrant front page treatment will now be presented in the easiest way to follow them to their conclusion.

Over the coming weeks we will also be improving the jump situation throughout AMNews by modifying the length of articles and placing them with added care so that many more are fully contained on a single page.

The change in jumps is one of several improvements that will start with this issue, marking the first revision of a top-to-bottom redesign of AMNews unveiled in mid-1998.

At that time, we greatly increased the sectionalization of AMNews in response to what readers told us about wanting to go directly to reporting on certain topics. Now, based on nearly two years of experience and reader feedback, the sections are being adjusted.

The weekly Government & Medicine, Professional Issues and Opinion sections will stay. So will the weekly Health & Science section, but with a more pronounced emphasis on patient care.

The weekly Business section will continue and will provide a much tighter focus on practice management, as well as business and legislative news with a direct impact on medical practice. A separate Technology section will appear every two weeks, and will focus on helping physicians with the purchasing and utilization decisions tied to computers and information technology.

Gone will be the Organized Medicine and Medical Markets sections. Much of the reporting that appeared there will move to the Professional Issues or Business sections, respectively, as warranted.

The individual section front pages will be even more useful to readers because each will feature its own section table of contents in the upper right corner. To keep the sections themselves easy to find, they will remain color-coded, and the "Inside" box on the right side of the AMNews front page will give the page on which each section begins as well as the top story in each section. (Those section-by-section indexes take the place of our "This Week" index. That space, on page 2, will now be used by the jumps from front page stories.)

There is another significant change to announce that we think will soon be apparent. The amednews staff will be drilling down deeper when reporting each story, seeking out the elements that will have the most direct impact on the professional lives of our readers. Expect a greater emphasis on solutions than problems.

All these improvements are in the same spirit that was behind our more extensive changes of two years ago: to find the focus of our work from what our readers tell us they need and want from this newspaper. So, welcome to our latest chapter, especially to the many physicians who helped write it.