Monday, August 01, 2005
E&P columnist praises RedEye
Editor & Publisher columnist Mark Fitzgerald writes in a July 30 column that he thinks RedEye "is getting better all the time." He praises it for three main reasons: Its graphics have improved; It's entertaining; And it seems to be finding a market. These are all subjective judgments at the moment, but in general I agree.
Fitzgerald writes his major complaint about RedEye (which is basically the same as ours) in the fourth-to-last paragraph. The column seems to acknowledge that RedEye does not function all that well as a newspaper. Fitzgerald softens this a little by pointing out that the paper runs handy entertainment information and crime items—which are among the most popular kinds of news items and the easiest to get. Take it from someone who's written a shitload of crime stories. The paper's "Rape Report," for example, requires only the simplest reporting and lends a sense of urgency and advocacy to a paper with very poor local reportage—in other words, creates the (flimsy) illusion that RedEye is a serious paper, just like the loud display type that runs with RedEye's often inane cover stories.
The implication is that RedEye lures its readers with pretty gifts but doesn't give them what a newspaper should be giving them, doesn't take full advantage of its potential as a news source.
And the marketing does need to improve, unless Tribune Co. wants to rely on readers who either fit right inside its target market or just grudgingly read the paper because it's cheap/free and obvious. Most of the paper's content and display is insulting to anyone interested enough in news to read the Tribune. Fitzgerald is way out of the target market and can enjoy the paper's flash and novelty without feeling this insult. Me, I have to deal with a newspaper that tries to lure me with horrid bright colors and deeply unsatisfying cleavage shots (see Mariah Carey on the Aug. 1 cover (and can't I get my tits fix elsewhere?)) and whatnot.
Fitzgerald also writes that Central Michigan University professor John K. Hartman is working on a study of RedEye and similar papers. We'll write something about that when it comes out.
Fitzgerald writes his major complaint about RedEye (which is basically the same as ours) in the fourth-to-last paragraph. The column seems to acknowledge that RedEye does not function all that well as a newspaper. Fitzgerald softens this a little by pointing out that the paper runs handy entertainment information and crime items—which are among the most popular kinds of news items and the easiest to get. Take it from someone who's written a shitload of crime stories. The paper's "Rape Report," for example, requires only the simplest reporting and lends a sense of urgency and advocacy to a paper with very poor local reportage—in other words, creates the (flimsy) illusion that RedEye is a serious paper, just like the loud display type that runs with RedEye's often inane cover stories.
The implication is that RedEye lures its readers with pretty gifts but doesn't give them what a newspaper should be giving them, doesn't take full advantage of its potential as a news source.
And the marketing does need to improve, unless Tribune Co. wants to rely on readers who either fit right inside its target market or just grudgingly read the paper because it's cheap/free and obvious. Most of the paper's content and display is insulting to anyone interested enough in news to read the Tribune. Fitzgerald is way out of the target market and can enjoy the paper's flash and novelty without feeling this insult. Me, I have to deal with a newspaper that tries to lure me with horrid bright colors and deeply unsatisfying cleavage shots (see Mariah Carey on the Aug. 1 cover (and can't I get my tits fix elsewhere?)) and whatnot.
Fitzgerald also writes that Central Michigan University professor John K. Hartman is working on a study of RedEye and similar papers. We'll write something about that when it comes out.
