Archive for June 29th, 2000
Disposable news?
Torontonians are up to their armpits in daily newspapers these days.
In addition to the four full-sized daily papers — the Star, the Sun, the Globe and the Post — commuters in the Big Smoke have the choice of three new free mini-papers.
The first on the stage was FYI Toronto, a Sun Media-Canoe.ca co-venture. And today two more jumped into the fray: the Toronto Star’s GTA Today and Metro, the latest edition of the Stockholm-based publication printed in a dozen cities in Europe and North America.
Here are a few first impressions:
| Metro | FYI Toronto | GTA Today |
|---|---|---|
| Calls itself: | ||
| “News-without-the-spin” (Sounds exiciting…) | “Toronto’s first free transit paper” (Big deal) | “A one-hand weekday FREE purple people reader” (Uh… OK) |
| Pages: | ||
| 20 | 24 | 24 |
| Lead headline: | ||
| Virus breakthrough in battle against cancer | City to rave on | ‘Flu-like bug kills cancer’ |
| Below-the-fold headline: | ||
| Elian and family finally fly home | Survivors bounce Been | Elian and dad back in Cuba |
| Headline font: | ||
| Classy, clean sans-serif typeface | Wide block letters, ugliest headline typeface since the National Post came along | One serif and one sans-serif. Both clear and readable |
| Centre spread: | ||
| Feature article (!) on gas prices | Entertainment: Two-page spread of pics, a little information on Canada Day events | Sports: Baseball, Euro 2000 |
| Back half: | ||
| Sports, entertainment, letters, TV listings. Back page ad | TV listings, events and movies listings, weather. Ads, ads and more ads | TV listings, events and movies listings. Entertainments section, including the back page |
| Strengths: | ||
| Lots and lots of short articles and news summaries, best international news (natch) | Web tie-in with Canoe.ca, eager to cover incidents of youth violence in this stinking city | Established local perspective, full colour on every page used effectively |
| Gaffs: | ||
| “Long gives backing to Stockwell Day” – Uh… no! | Treats events on Survivor as front-page news | Um… Bad headline puns? (“Fawn-ed of GTA” – story of an orphaned deer in TO) |
| Horoscopes? | ||
| Nope. Comics are more fun anyway | Yup. Page 10 | Yup. Page 2 |
| Going to work this morning, I saw this paper most often: | ||
| In the hands of Toronto commuters | Under the feet of Toronto commuters | In those purple boxes of theirs |
| Overall impression: | ||
| Dense with information, best read, but few local ties | Ugly mini-Sun, 24-page ad for Canoe.ca | The Star’s kid brother, sharing its “centre of the Universe” connections |