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Free newspapers and how not to do it
May. 9th, 2007 10:51 amWhen I was walking towards the train yesterday in the wee too de-caffeinated hours of the morning, a girl handed me a newspaper. "This is the new free newspaper!" she told me excitedly.
Holland knows several free newspapers *), some are also handed out in various European countries. First and most widely known, especially among subway-travelers, is the Metro.
Metro has mostly a green lay-out and like it’s free brother (though not quite) the Spits it mostly copies the press reports AP, Reuters and all other press agencies deliver. I used to prefer Metro over Spits since the Spits layout irked me to no end. Lately, however, the Metro people have been using key words (or what they think are key words) to make us choose to read the article. When they copy a press-report about a dog that drowned, they add the term ‘sad’ at the top of the article in – and this is important – bright pink letters.
As if those emo-words would ever make me choose to read an article. The headlines are rather more important and an art in itself to write.
A few months ago, there was a riot in Free Newspaperland. The Pers (tr: Press) would be quality news for free, at first only available on the internet and later in stores. Metro and Spits were appalled at the implication that their news was of a lower standard.
The first time I picked up the Pers to see what it held, I was impressed. An article about the confession of a known Al Qaeda terrorist who was held in Guantanamo Bay was front page news. Not so noteworthy in itself. The article displayed facts, and at the bottom was a reference to their page three article that would continue on the subject. This second, more in-depth article was of a more critical note. On how Al-Jazeera reacted, that people were skeptical that the confession was real, and other inquiring notes were struck. In fact, this sole article was of a higher standard than the combined value of Metro and Spits. I was a fan.
And now there is Dag (tr: Day). The Di-Dag (tr: Tue-Day) I got handed to me yesterday had a huge picture on the front page. The headline was shuffled in the left of the picture, and consisted of a sole word. "Rain!"
As it turned out, the front page was a good teaser of the rest of the newspaper. Screaming headlines consisting mostly of power-words, not newspaper-worthy pictures and many, many bright colours flared on the pages of the Dag. There was a page that consisted solely of maybe twenty or thirty small pictures with two sentences beneath them explaining why they should be considered news-worthy. I quit reading when I saw the Hello Kitty nails on a beauty fair in Japan.
This was not news.
To my horror, I kept on turning the pages until I found the first thing that interested me: art. Art on Paris Hilton, true, but still it was art. The article explained how the stone statue of a dead Paris Hilton, with cell phone in her hand and her doggie Tinkerbell on her naked chest, her legs spread wide in the international porn-gesture, should prevent (yes, prevent!) teenagers from becoming pregnant. The article elaborated how the internal organs could be removed, as well as the fetuses in her abdomen. Art at its best, people.
*)If they can be called newspapers. In times of war, we would probably refer to it as 'perfectly fine toilet paper'.
Holland knows several free newspapers *), some are also handed out in various European countries. First and most widely known, especially among subway-travelers, is the Metro.
Metro has mostly a green lay-out and like it’s free brother (though not quite) the Spits it mostly copies the press reports AP, Reuters and all other press agencies deliver. I used to prefer Metro over Spits since the Spits layout irked me to no end. Lately, however, the Metro people have been using key words (or what they think are key words) to make us choose to read the article. When they copy a press-report about a dog that drowned, they add the term ‘sad’ at the top of the article in – and this is important – bright pink letters.
As if those emo-words would ever make me choose to read an article. The headlines are rather more important and an art in itself to write.
A few months ago, there was a riot in Free Newspaperland. The Pers (tr: Press) would be quality news for free, at first only available on the internet and later in stores. Metro and Spits were appalled at the implication that their news was of a lower standard.
The first time I picked up the Pers to see what it held, I was impressed. An article about the confession of a known Al Qaeda terrorist who was held in Guantanamo Bay was front page news. Not so noteworthy in itself. The article displayed facts, and at the bottom was a reference to their page three article that would continue on the subject. This second, more in-depth article was of a more critical note. On how Al-Jazeera reacted, that people were skeptical that the confession was real, and other inquiring notes were struck. In fact, this sole article was of a higher standard than the combined value of Metro and Spits. I was a fan.
And now there is Dag (tr: Day). The Di-Dag (tr: Tue-Day) I got handed to me yesterday had a huge picture on the front page. The headline was shuffled in the left of the picture, and consisted of a sole word. "Rain!"
As it turned out, the front page was a good teaser of the rest of the newspaper. Screaming headlines consisting mostly of power-words, not newspaper-worthy pictures and many, many bright colours flared on the pages of the Dag. There was a page that consisted solely of maybe twenty or thirty small pictures with two sentences beneath them explaining why they should be considered news-worthy. I quit reading when I saw the Hello Kitty nails on a beauty fair in Japan.
This was not news.
To my horror, I kept on turning the pages until I found the first thing that interested me: art. Art on Paris Hilton, true, but still it was art. The article explained how the stone statue of a dead Paris Hilton, with cell phone in her hand and her doggie Tinkerbell on her naked chest, her legs spread wide in the international porn-gesture, should prevent (yes, prevent!) teenagers from becoming pregnant. The article elaborated how the internal organs could be removed, as well as the fetuses in her abdomen. Art at its best, people.
*)If they can be called newspapers. In times of war, we would probably refer to it as 'perfectly fine toilet paper'.
