Well, it has been exciting times in the Brisbane newspaper market this week. Well, as exciting as Brisbane newspapers ever are, work with me, give me some latitude here.
In the Fairfax corner, there has been the launch of 'the paper you have when you don't have actual paper' - the Brisbane Times. It is good to have another viewpoint of purely Queensland news apart from the incumbent, which is on actual newsprint - though usually when you look for local Brisbane stories in any media, the coverage is pretty light whichever way you go.
First impression of the Times is that it has potential. At the moment it does have a feel of a hobby job for Sydney Morning Herald journos with time on their hands, they need to do a bit of fact checking - it is 20 years since Brisbane won the basketball, not 22 - and what is it with the Blogs? They are my least fave part of the SMH and it looks like Fairfax are importing them north of the border, aargh.
On the News Limited side, not only do they have the major Queensland daily around, this week they launched a free afternoon daily as well. mX, short for metroXpress, which has apparently done quite well in Sydney and Melbourne so far.
I have no idea why. My initial take on it is that it is either a newspaper as imagined by gossip mag editors, or a gossip mag as imagined by the newspaper eds. Oh, there is the free thing about it I guess.
Example, from Wednesday's edition - front page, above the fold, is one of the Pussycat Dolls dancing a bit too energetically and losing her skirt. Below the fold is the Indonesian airliner crashing, the initial reports. Page three filled with 'entertainment' stories, about Kevin Federline shaving his head in sympathy with Brit-Brit, Ralph Fiennes having more sex, and Paris Hilton having drugs as told by Courtney Love. Prince William getting married on page five, and that's even before we get to the designated Entertainment pages of the thing.
And all the cutesy side bars with 'It's true!' or 'No sh*t Sherlock' - apart from the fact that I hate cutesy graphics, it has that Women's Weekly 'Mere Male' or Readers Digest ' Did You Know' feel to it. Which has felt an ancient concept ever since I can remember.
And the worst of it, most of the world news is shunted to one paragraph summaries under the title Doom and Gloom, next to a wonderful weather graphic showing showers. And that photo of the Killing Fields museum in Cambodia, umm, that is so a file pic that could have been taken anytime in the last twenty years. Or, the horoscopes, aka, Should I get out of bed tomorrow? Ack.
We will see how the latest media battles develop. I have little hope of mX getting the imperial thumbs up - from myself that is - based on the evidence so far.
In the Fairfax corner, there has been the launch of 'the paper you have when you don't have actual paper' - the Brisbane Times. It is good to have another viewpoint of purely Queensland news apart from the incumbent, which is on actual newsprint - though usually when you look for local Brisbane stories in any media, the coverage is pretty light whichever way you go.
First impression of the Times is that it has potential. At the moment it does have a feel of a hobby job for Sydney Morning Herald journos with time on their hands, they need to do a bit of fact checking - it is 20 years since Brisbane won the basketball, not 22 - and what is it with the Blogs? They are my least fave part of the SMH and it looks like Fairfax are importing them north of the border, aargh.
On the News Limited side, not only do they have the major Queensland daily around, this week they launched a free afternoon daily as well. mX, short for metroXpress, which has apparently done quite well in Sydney and Melbourne so far.
I have no idea why. My initial take on it is that it is either a newspaper as imagined by gossip mag editors, or a gossip mag as imagined by the newspaper eds. Oh, there is the free thing about it I guess.
Example, from Wednesday's edition - front page, above the fold, is one of the Pussycat Dolls dancing a bit too energetically and losing her skirt. Below the fold is the Indonesian airliner crashing, the initial reports. Page three filled with 'entertainment' stories, about Kevin Federline shaving his head in sympathy with Brit-Brit, Ralph Fiennes having more sex, and Paris Hilton having drugs as told by Courtney Love. Prince William getting married on page five, and that's even before we get to the designated Entertainment pages of the thing.
And all the cutesy side bars with 'It's true!' or 'No sh*t Sherlock' - apart from the fact that I hate cutesy graphics, it has that Women's Weekly 'Mere Male' or Readers Digest ' Did You Know' feel to it. Which has felt an ancient concept ever since I can remember.
And the worst of it, most of the world news is shunted to one paragraph summaries under the title Doom and Gloom, next to a wonderful weather graphic showing showers. And that photo of the Killing Fields museum in Cambodia, umm, that is so a file pic that could have been taken anytime in the last twenty years. Or, the horoscopes, aka, Should I get out of bed tomorrow? Ack.
We will see how the latest media battles develop. I have little hope of mX getting the imperial thumbs up - from myself that is - based on the evidence so far.
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