Space, timing can make event notices difficult

Last Saturday I went out to get my paper as soon as it arrived (5 a.m.). I couldn't wait to get the Home section to read all about the garden tour that was happening that day. It always gets me excited to go on the tour. Much to my dismay there was no mention of the tour. I was very disappointed. Today I expected to get the full brochure on theThurston County Fair so I could plan when to take various family members. No brochure! I don't want to go online for it. I want to read it with my breakfast. Has your policy on these things changed? What's going on? -- Trish

Features Editor Dusti Demarest
I'm sorry you were disappointed. We previewed the Garden Rhapsodies Tour the weekend before with a Home story and cover photograph (link). We did it then to give people time to plan for the event, since Home comes out on Saturdays and it was a Saturday event. We did include information in last Saturday's Home about the tour in a box with Mary Jo Buza's column, but in retrospect, we should have done a short item reminding people of that day's tour, and referring them to the previous week's story, which is still posted on our Web site. As for the fair schedule, I don't think we've ever been able to run the fair's full schedule in the newspaper. That's because it's very large -- even listing one day's events and entertainment options isn't really possible because of its size. While that makes it difficult for the newspaper, it means fairgoers will have a lot of things to choose from.

You can still plan your trip to the fair by checking out the searchable fair schedule here.