Today was the second installment of the Boston Globe’s weekly Calendar section appearing inside the Sidekick. Last Wednesday we held our breath when we read the short announcement in Sidekick that they would swallow the Calendar – but it didn’t turn out as bad as we thought. The new format requires a reader to actually open the Sidekick to remove the Calendar section. Perhaps this was the goal of the Globe; in the next survey of readership they’ll ask the pointed question “do you open the Sidekick at least once a week?” Calendar faithful will now have to say yes. Admittedly, we only had a chance to skim today’s Calendar, but we didn’t notice any significant changes other that the fact it was located inside the Sidekick. The image here appeared as front cover to the Calendar section as it sat inserted into a smattering of boston.com feedback on "the best sports bar."

The Calendar relocation may have been a minor location change, but both Mark Jurkowitz at the Phoenix’s Media Log and Bill Marx on ‘BUR’s Attitude blog wrote up the change with pretty much the same conclusion: why? Marx was a little more harsh, warning of further downslides in arts coverage coming at the Globe. While the two note this change to the Thursday Globe (as did the Herald) they have declined or yet to make comment on what seems to be a more substantive change to the Thursday Globe: when the Living Arts section became the Style and Arts section in January. The Style section (arts is in a significantly smaller font and coverage – so we’ll omit it) in the Globe comes as a separate chunk, as in not collated into the rest of the paper, to home delivery customers. The section is put to bed earlier and doesn’t contain the most recent arts reviews – those have been bumped to the City section. Bostonist has been disappointed in the new configuration of the section. They haven’t figured out when to use color and when to leave it out, it often seems they’re forgetting the publication still isn’t a glossy. We never went to the Globe for our style trends and advice, and we still don’t see impetus for change. Perhaps the Herald hit the nail on the head (elaborated on by Marx) when they forecasted a reduction in the Globe’s arts coverage.