h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Can anyone confirm whether the Weekend section is still extant in the UK?
And if so, can anyone point to any public* forums/Facebook pages etc where I could ask the Times people a question? Or any that they might be monitoring?

End of questions - the following verbiage is just to save anyone suggesting things I've done already/asking about the background (knowing how helpful folks are here). So apologies for the length of it!

I'm a Londoner living in Ireland. I used to buy the Times most Saturdays; partly because I like to know what's happening back in the UK, but largely for the Weekend section with its arts, books, and the Cryptic Jumbo crossword#
My last sighting of a Weekend was about 3 months ago (October 24th). It was missing from the next 2 issues I bought, and from the papers I've checked most Saturdays since (in a variety of newsagents$).

There are still pointers in the front to interesting articles in the nonexistent Weekend, but I'd like to check that people still get it elsewhere, before going into battle. (Well, I am getting quite exercised about it! Especially when I suspect that someone's short-changing people in Ireland, thinking they're too dumb to notice).

*From previous experiences of trying to resolve beefs, there are too many downsides to the phone route (apart from the added expense of hanging on from another country). I'd like to ask them about it somewhere out in the open, where the conversation's documented.

I have gathered that the Times has its own readers' forum, but it's inside the paywall (as is commenting on its Facebook page). A subscription would be pointless for me (I don't have time to read a paper every day, and anyway it looks as if the only online edition I could get from Ireland is the Irish one (with the Irish news), which would defeat the purpose of buying a UK newspaper (and, for me, the purpose of the internet!).
I did manage to find two Times email addresses outside the paywall, but not for relevant departments (one's for letters, but though most of the few I've sent to publications got printed, I don't think this subject would be

#The only one that can reliably clear my mind for sleep (a bonus being the only worthwhile crossword prize open to Irish residents).

$I have asked the newsagents about it, and they tell me that the only part of the paper inserted in the shops is the Magazine (the rest is delivered to them complete).

< A87842424 > with 'Icy North' playing it

I do the daily crossword puzzle in my local paper. A few weeks ago, the paper replaced its paper delivery company with an inept one. The results were so bad that two weeks later they hired back the company that had been delivering my paper before. So, I'm getting my paper again, and I like the ritual of sitting down with it right after breakfast. First the puzzle, then the comics, finally the search for any good news.

Here in the UK, the crosswords, (including the majestic Listener) are within the Saturday Review section, which they insert in the Weekend section, so I guess if you don't get the one, you don't get the other. It's delivered to the newsagent the day before, I think, like the magazine, and they have to stuff them in at 6am on Saturday morning (been there, done that). Some distributors put the mag in a plastic bag with assorted other junk.

Sometimes my newsagent doesn't have the review section, and I have to ask, or I walk out and get it from the supermarket.

they stopped including the review sections for deliveries of the paper to Germany some years ago, IIRC. Maybe Ireland has finally caught up in the cost saving thing?

Ah - so Weekend/Saturday Review are still going in the UK; that narrows the problem down a bit.
As does the lack of them in Germany - thanks.

Right - now to give the Times people a piece of my mind (if only I can find somewhere to do it!).

The online version?

http://store3.thetimes.co.uk/membership-benefits-3.html?CMP=KNG-G_BR_The_Times_Brand_Subs_Type_[E]-msix-Newspapers-the_times_newspaper

Could you arrange for them to mail you the correct edition?

Thanks, Still Incognita. But I was hoping to ask the Times about it in a more public way than the phone number or email addresses at the Times Online site (and anyway,the email addresses are either about using Times Online, or to other irrelevant departments.

Thanks for the thought, paulh. But I don't think it's possible to get the paper sent just 1 day a week (if to Ireland at all).

HOWEVER. While in our local newsagent today for a Guardian, I idly checked the Times as usual and, - guess what? It had a Review/Weekend section in it!
It's as if the Gods have been having a laugh (just waiting for the past 3 months till I bothered to post about it).

But just coincidence I guess. (Though I suppose it's just possible that someone at the Times noticed this conversation, and was able to act very quickly and correct a simple mistake?).

It would be interesting to know about it if the Review section reappeared in Germany.
Who knows - its cover could even be in colour in Ireland one day!

I hope that the news dealer has the section in the future, too.

Yes, hopefully!
I guess even this one appearance rules out any deliberate policy of omitting the section in Ireland. (I'm feeling calmer already!).

By the way, I didn't mean that I found the lack of colour on the cover of Weekend particularly annoying. (I assumed it was a deliberate design decision, until I happened to notice that the UK version of the cover photo was in colour. And when I've been able to compare the two, they've often been better in black & white).