What is going on with the Chronicle‘s section formerly known as Features? It has been renamed to a picture of a gold star, which means we must call it the “star” section, but that’s not where the bad ideas end.
Kevin Whited told us recently that Texas Magazine, a weekend insert, has ceased to exist. What the Chronicle said is that the stories about interesting people and places around Texas, in addition to schedules of events, would now be found in the “star” section. Well bummer. Texas Magazine was great and was one of the few things that made the Sunday paper worthwhile.
I checked out the “star” section to find those unique Texas Magazine stories I am now missing. Unfortunately, I am still missing them, because they aren’t there. What we do have in the new and improved “star” section is a whole lot of skin. And trendy fashion. And celebrity news. Yippee.
The “star” section practically needs a parental warning label because plastered all over the pages are women in various clothing styles, frequently employing the less-is-more thinking. We even get an interview with a Playboy Playmate who is also a UH senior. And, to add to the vapidity, the “star” section appears to be fixated with Paris Hilton.
MeMo is in charge of the “star” section and her unique, uh, style is very apparent. We can guess the goal is to attract a younger audience to the Chronicle, and MeMo is going to do that by creating a dumbed-down and trashed-up section. Saturdays look to be maintaining the theme of Home and Garden, but the rest of the week is suspect. And there is not a hint of those wonderful stories that used to fill Texas Magazine.
I wonder what long-time readers think of the new “star” section? My guess is most Houstonians don’t even open it up anymore, unless it is to turn to the comics.
