“A review should adequately discuss a production, and give the reader an idea of why your assessment is valid,” wrote online commenter new2saltlake. The commenter also had several subjective critiques of word choice and readability, but Rant Control will limit his response to the objective slam that the reviews were too short.

What new2saltlake may not realize is that even at a financially healthy paper—like City Weekly—everything from page count to staffing levels is determined by the number and size of advertisements sold. We can’t make the space for news stories larger simply because the subjects deserve it. Our newspaper page count is determined by revenue, and it varies week-to-week.

Rant Control asked A&E Editor Scott Renshaw about new2saltlake’s critique.

Renshaw said he would love to devote more space to theater reviews. “We were fortunate that we were able to cover a small community theater company that we’ve never reviewed before,” he says.

Rant Control thinks new2saltlake might not realize that the number of cultural offerings our humble city has to offer far outnumbers any one newspaper’s abilities to write about them.