Order restored after Topsy Turvy week at ANR

For the record, your friends at the Aurora News-Register have not lost our collective minds.
Some of you may have wondered if in fact the smell of ink and solvent had gone directly to our brains when you first saw last week’s edition. It was a Topsy Turvy issue for sure, and several loyal readers let us know about it.
“What have you done to my newspaper?” one reader asked.
“I don’t like it,” another added, bluntly. “It took a lot longer to read this week’s edition and I don’t appreciate that.”
“Why would you do that?” asked another, incredulously.
A few of our senior readers gently suggested that perhaps we made a few mistakes, not wanting to offend. Thank you for such kindness and loyalty, but this time we asked for and expected some candid feedback.
Hoping to explain our unique promotion and rationale, I wrote a front-page column introducing Topsy Turvy. The problem is, as I noted in that column, many people follow their own unique routine when it comes to reading their hometown newspaper, which may or may not include reading the front page before turning inside. In other words, much like Orson Welles’ infamous “War of the Worlds” radio program, many of you were not in on the hoax.
Lesson learned, dear readers, I assure you. We heard you loudly and clearly that messing with your Aurora News-Register is serious business, like getting a slap in the face from a trusted friend.
If we offended you, I sincerely apologize.
On the flip side, to be fair, we had some readers say they loved the Topsy Turvy concept. 
“Kudos,” one said. “It’s the most exciting newspaper I have seen in a while. I love the classified. I’d be shocked if this doesn’t win you some awards.”
Another noted that it’s healthy to challenge our brains, having to piece things we’re familiar with together in a different way, adding that she spent far more time looking at the ad content than she normally would. 
By placing ads at the top of the page instead of at the bottom, many readers said they paid closer attention to what those advertisers had to say. A few advertisers added their own creative twist, with one business owner even standing on his head, saying “We’ve flipped our lid” with a gigantic half-off special. Very clever, I thought.
Publishing pictures and headlines upside down may have been a bit much, some said, and on that note page designers and editors were just following their assignment. Rest assured that the puzzle pieces have all been returned to their natural order, right side up, ads at the bottom, for this week’s edition.
Whether you liked seeing all the rules broken, on purpose, or whether it ruined your day, one thing is for certain -- It got your attention, which was precisely the point. People were talking about the Aurora News-Register days after last week’s edition came off the press, which can’t be all bad.
Perspective matters, and what this experiment/promotion tells me is that you have clear and very high expectations from your local newspaper. 
As do we!
KURT JOHNSON can be reached at kjohnson@ hamilton.net