On June 11, the Bangor Daily News rolled out a new, six-page weekend television section and explained that, in response to changing viewer preferences, the TV Watch magazine would be discontinued. We also asked each weekend for suggested improvements to the six-page section, and the popular daily television page we introduced last spring.

This is the final weekend for the booklet, and in the past eight weeks, the six-page weekend section has evolved with the help of readers into a more informative and useful tool for the serious TV viewer. More movie listings were requested – earlier in the day, and later at night. We responded. The movie highlights now run from 6 a.m. to 4 a.m. the next morning. New channels were requested and five have been added to the daily page and weekend : MTV, VH1, Great American Country, Outdoor Life Network and Country Music Television.

What’s driving these changes? Readers want more current, reliable information in their TV listings. By their nature, because they’re made up of grids and listings compiled early in the week for insertion into the weekend paper, booklets are stale, and the information often is inaccurate. By the middle of the following week, the contents are at least eight or nine days old, and sometimes far older if the booklet was published well in advance.

Many cable and dish subscribers now access their grids directly, on their television set, scrolling ahead, quickly finding the programs they want by theme and category.

For those reasons, and others, use of the TV booklet has declined steadily over the years. Research shows only a minority of BDN readers regularly uses the booklet, and each year that number decreases. It is part of a continuing, long-term trend that has accelerated as specialty channels have proliferated, making it nearly impossible for a single, published booklet to adequately serve everyone.

It is a national phenomenon. TV Guide, the flagship in the TV booklet business, recently announced that, in response to the same trends, it will discontinue its booklet and move to a larger format with more stories and fewer listings.

Listings and grids still are very important to television viewers, and we have responded to changing customer demands in our coverage area with a three-pronged approach that has been well-received by many readers.

1. The daily, full-color TV page contains timely, accurate grids and quick-hit stories on programs and media personalities. It is as close to up-to-the-minute as a daily newspaper can provide. It is, of course, in addition to the broadcast schedule of TV and radio sports that appears each day in the BDN Sports section.

2. The six-page weekend TV section offers complete weekend grids and movie highlights for the entire week.

3. A brand new feature that has been very well-received by TV viewers who have computers that can link to the BDN on the Web: Online television listings that allow viewers to plan their programming for up to two weeks! Simply go to www.bangordailynews.com and follow three simple steps. Click on TV Listings in the left navigational bar, and when the screen comes up, enter your ZIP code and identify your cable or dish provider, or whether you have an antenna to receive local broadcast. Almost instantly, you’ll have two weeks of custom listings for your specific area. You can search them by date, time, category and channel. Bookmark the BDN homepage in your favorites.

We must modify our approach to packaging TV program information to meet the needs of more readers. We’ve been listening, and many refinements suggested by readers already have been incorporated into our weekend and Web-based content. Let us know how we can improve. Please contact Mark Woodward, 990-8239, or Dale McGarrigle, 990-8028.