New readers, start here. This column has had a Saturday home in the Register for the past two and a half years, alongside Philip Howard's Modern Times and Derwent May's Feather Report, and nicer neighbours you couldn't ask for, always ready with a cup of tea and a gossip about the Editor. While they explore the etiquette of the fish knife and the mating habits of chiffchaffs, I have a merry chat with Times readers about anything and everything to do with the paper: grammar and spelling, the challenges of headlines, choice of pictures, the workings of the printing presses, why the clock atop the leaders stands at half past four, the myth of the First Cuckoo letters, the authenticity of the Waterloo edition in your granny's attic, and any other Thunderer business.

When The Times errs, Feedback is where we apologise; when we please you, this is where we allow ourselves a small pat on the collective journalistic back, although those are far rarer, human nature being always more disposed to hurl a brickbat than hand us a bouquet. You have left us in no doubt that you feel passionately about what The Times does, and how and why it does it.

This week the Editor, in his infinite wisdom, has relocated Feedback Towers to a different home, and in such a smart new neighbourhood too; we may (ah, may and might - a hardy Feedback perennial) have to sit up straighter and use longer words. Newcomers are cordially invited to uncork their vitriol, sharpen a new quill, and let rip with their complaints or queries (see contact details at the end). Of course, should you wish to congratulate us on something too, we won't mind a bit.

Cross purposes

Speaking of vitriol, on Monday we unveiled a redesign of The Times with such exciting innovations as leading articles on page 2, colour throughout the paper and a radical new look for times2, and what do you all complain about? The crossword layout. Howls of outrage that now you can't do it standing up on the Tube. What short memories you have. This - two vertical columns - is how it was through most of the 1990s. There have been two redesigns since, each placing it at the bottom of the page, and you howled with outrage at both of them. So this time we listened to devoted members of The Times Crossword Club, who wanted it back in two columns with the clues beneath the grid. The crossword editor was involved in the new design and is delighted, especially by the extra space, so that he no longer has brutally to edit the fiendish clues to get them to turn neatly across several short columns. (Dear Lord, please let me have retired long before we tinker with it again.)

Times for change

What lies at the heart of all your complaints about redesigns in general, and the crossword in particular, is an all-too-human resistance to change. If I had 50p for every letter since Monday containing the plaintive cry “It wasn't broke, so why fix it?” I'd be off to the Caribbean for a month.

We are a business operating in a fiercely competitive environment, with many other sources of news and entertainment vying for your attention. It is not enough for us simply to strive to retain our loyal readership; it is imperative that we attract, by innovation, new readers with fresh tastes and interests. If we fail to do so, we have no future. That is why, periodically and with a great deal of discussion, forethought and care, we make some changes. And this time, not a word of a lie - and I can't tell you how unusual this is - for every letter of complaint, we have received one of praise.

On the whole you like the colour throughout the paper and the colour-coding of sections, the Daily Universal Register miscellany and the Archive photograph, and letters on a right-hand page (although you'd like even more space for letters). You miss the poetry in times2, still want Business and Sport as a separate section, are warming to the leaders on page 2 (although one reader helpfully points out that it's difficult to read page 2 in bed in the morning with the light behind it, and another asks why put leaders on page 2 when the outside pages are frequently unreadable owing to tearing or soaking in delivery). You don't much like the italic headlines, were terribly worried that we had dropped Nature Notes until you found it in the Daily Universal Register, and are enjoying the extra puzzles (read more than 300 other comments at timesonline.co.uk/feedback). In fact, your general cynicism is summed up by Derek Harris from London: “I'm a thoroughly miserable b*****d, so when I heard on Today that you'd mucked around with the paper, I swore. So well done on the revised layout. It's only right that leaders and opinion have more prominence, and from what I can ascertain, you've improved the paper immeasurably - signed, your suspicious and generally offensive loyal reader.”

Outlook fair

Finally, John Colbert says now we've changed The Times for the better, could we do something about the weather. He'd like a glorious June, July and August followed by a pleasant autumn across the Midlands. Seen the forecast, Mr Colbert? And Jonathan Cohen writes: “I am sure that your postbag will be full of comments about the new layout. Could I please have my name printed in your column on Saturday, siding with the majority opinion?”

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