I was intending to talk about North Carolina Sportsman’s new look last month, but if you stumbled across this page in the December 2008 issue, you know I had other topics on my mind.Change was a major by-word on the political scene during 2008, and this month we’ll have a big change of residents at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C., when the Obamas move into their new digs after the Bushes have retreated to Texas.
“Change” was one of the goals of Barack Obama’s political campaign, but his “change” now appears simply to have meant elimination of George Bush as president and Republican power in D.C.
Everything else pretty much has stayed the same, it appears, as Obama has started to fill his Administration’s cabinet posts and other offices with re-treads from the Clinton era.
But who could say Dubya made things better? Checked your IRA or 401(k) lately?
Bush supporters made arguments in the negative — terrorists didn’t hijack any more airplanes and fly them into U.S. buildings, killing thousands of innocent civilians, under his watch. But Americans these days apparently don’t have much patience or foresight and easily were convinced GWB’s tactics in keeping the country safe somehow were wrong. We’re still trying to figure out that illogic.
But if all the political change was simply change for its own sake, then hold onto your hats — and wallets.
But enough of that.
We also have changed the look of the four Sportsman magazines (North Carolina, Louisiana, South Carolina and Mississippi).
The plan for this change had been made long before the recession hit and was, frankly, overdue. Newspapers usually do what’s called a “re-design” about every seven years. Our mothership, Louisiana Sportsman, had looked the same for more than 25 years, and North Carolina Sportsman hadn’t been reconfigured since it started 15 years ago.
But here’s the main thing: Even though our looks are different, we’ll still be giving it our best shot to cover topics our readers like — hunting and fishing from Murphy to Manteo — as thoroughly as always.
Our new look hopefully will help readers find timely information more easily by bringing forward big concepts (and some not so big) from the mostly unbroken columns of type that characterized our old look. And, to be perfectly honest, we hope these more exciting visuals will draw added subscribers and advertisers.
We’re still going to give you the best stories about N.C.’s biggest white-tailed deer and how to bag ’em; we’ll still offer the best in saltwater and freshwater fishing coverage, including how-to and where-to-go information to help make your trips to lakes, rivers, sounds and the ocean as productive as possible (a note about that: we’ll try to include more inland panfish stories — crappie, bluegill — along with more catfishing features because you asked for it in our last reader survey). And we’ll still report about small game as well as outdoor political topics.
My wife and daughter sometimes go for “make-overs” (cosmetic tune-ups) at the beauty shop. But they’re still the same gals afterward.
We just did our own “makeover,” but we’re also still the same crew underneath.
It’s too bad it didn’t work on my physical appearance (see above).
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