It ain’t what it once was, but it is better than it was before.

The new local news section CTNow arrived in the blue tube this morning, and while it isn’t the zoned local news section from The Time Of Obscene Newspaper Profitability, it is better than its previous iteration a few days ago.

For starters, it’s a section front, which says something about its importance; and it puts local columnists like Helen Ubinas on display. They add a personality, wit and charm to the local report. (well, not so much charm in Helen’s case.)

Inside, the local news report is significantly more robust and divides the cop news from the town news more effectively. (I know this is opening day, with the best possible showing; and that Thursday is usually a pretty chunky edition, but they would be fools to produce way more debut material than they can sustain, and they are not fools in the newsroom.) The entire circulation area’s town briefs are represented, of course, which is a far cry from the ToONP (referenced above) when each part of the state got its own zoned edition chock full of staff-written local news.

I notice that my friends Larry Smith and Loretta Waldman provide several news briefs. They have been for a while. It is unfair that the Courant laid them off (and many others) and now has them working part-time, while it hires younger, less experienced reporters for full time positions in local news. Readers don’t know or care about that, I know, but to me it’s another shade of darkness on the already blackened corporate heart.

Part of the section rearranging also meant putting weather on Page 2. That was not a bad move, either.

What might someday be more problematic is that visiting www.ctnow.com — the old name of the Courant’s website — takes the reader to the entertainment section, also called CTNow once upon a time.

I suppose  the best part of this change is that it represents an uptick in the relative importance of local news — something readers have clamored for for many years. It also is evidence the managers there are not just listening, but acting in concert with what readers say.

It will be interesting to see how or if the public responds.