We subscribed to the Sunday Register for all of my childhood years. The news. The sports. The inserts. The classifieds. And what Mom valued the most, the TV guide. That handy little insert was pulled out of the paper and placed on the end table by the couch where she relaxed. We all knew, if you took the TV guide, you put it back where you found it or there would be hell to pay.
This wasn’t that fancy, digest-sized glossy magazine you could buy in the grocery stores that was officially called “TV Guide.” That was too expensive. Ours was the tabloid-sized version printed on newsprint with the grids showing our local channels and shows.
Years later, when I worked for The Des Moines Register, I knew the power of the TV guide, and I confidently sold advertising in it to my customers. The daily paper may have been read and thrown away each morning, but the TV guide was held onto all week and referenced many times, giving the ads in it multiple impressions. It made sense to me, and it drove results for my advertising customers.
Even in my apartment of college buddies, we used the TV guide regularly. With all the channels available by then, it was becoming less of a necessity, especially with the cable company having a channel with all the listings. Even so, maybe out of habit, we hung onto it.
As the years passed, this habit changed, and, eventually, The Des Moines Register and many other Sunday papers quit publishing a TV guide. My view is that much of this came with the increased use of the remote control and “channel surfing” that had become commonplace, along with complicated and mostly irrelevant grids. The irony is that, even with those hundreds of channels, we still couldn’t find something we wanted to watch.
TV viewership today has changed with a barrage of streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and others, yet, if you are like me, you still struggle finding something you really want to watch.
If only there were a handy printed guide mailed to every home that would offer suggestions for our viewing pleasures.
Hmmm.
Have a wonderful Wednesday, and thanks for reading.
Shane Goodman
President and Publisher
Big Green Umbrella Media
shane@dmcityview.com
515-953-4822, ext. 305
www.thedailyumbrella.com | 
