Monday, October 1, 2007
News / News Bites RedEye West?
Posted by Michael Miner on Mon, Oct 1, 2007 at 7:47 PM
A kid stands at the door to my CTA stop every morning handing out the latest RedEye, and commuters not only accept it but carry it upstairs to the el platform. This display of real if minimal interest distinguishes the RedEyes foisted on the public from the ones in the box across the sidewalk, which I never see anyone bother with, and from the Sun-Times's in an adjacent box, which cost 50 cents and which no one on the trains I take seems to read any more. And to judge by what gets tossed in the first available dumpster, a RedEye hawker is a more welcome sight to a passerby than either a Jehovah's Witness handing out pamphlets or the day worker giving away out fliers that tout the two-for-one special of the floundering eatery on the corner.
We all laughed when RedEye was launched in 2002, but it survived our ridicule and a cunning counterstroke by the Sun-Times to take its place in Chicago. In 2003 Tribune Company launched another free tab, AM New York. Now it's on to Los Angeles!
David Hiller, publisher of Tribune's Los Angeles Times, said the other day that the same sort of paper is in the works out there. Reuters reported, "Hiller, speaking at a luncheon in Los Angeles, said the new paper would be similar to Redeye, a paper published and distributed for free at commuter stations by the Chicago Tribune."
History's written by the daring and the foolhardy, and we'll see in time where this idea falls. Aggressive young newspaper hawkers are surely not in short supply in LA. But rapid transit stations for them to hawk at and commuters who'll take their product because they crave distraction for the 20-minute trip into town surely are. I asked a veteran journalist who knows both Chicago and LA what he thought:
"It's absurd. . . . The reason it wouldn't work in LA is the same reason a Red Eye wouldn't work in Milwaukee: with rare exceptions, 95 percent of people here commute in cars and not to fixed destinations. They'd have to give the rag away at gas stations or Starbucks. A Spanish-language edition would be necessary for these downtown office and maintenance workers who make full use of the buses in the wee hours . . .
"It's possible that RedEye could be distributed at commuter destinations -- studios, malls etc -- but you'd have to get permission to get on property or behind security gates, and there would be the same problem with honor boxes and litter. LA is quite a bit less tolerant about such things than Chicago."
Meanwhile, Sam Zell is trying to bring off a $8.2 billion deal and take the Tribune Company private. And a lot of hands at the LA Times are hoping that if and when that happens Zell will sell their paper to somebody local, somebody who knows how LA goes to work.
Showing 1-12 of 12
If it was a cross between a 50s gossip rag and Defamer it might find a (somewhat ironic) audience. If it takes RedEye's cretinous look at stardom it will be laughed out of town.
Like the product or not, keep dumping on RedEye. Maybe someday you can find a way to base your opinions less on mere anecdotal and selective trainstop observations and maybe fold in a few numbers and actual research. No one picks up The Reader at a number of boxes I've seen while the RedEye boxes close by are always empty. That doesn't mean The Reader is dying on the vine ... or does it?
Every RedEye box in Rogers Park is emptied out by early afternoon. I don't know where you're looking, but it sure ain't here!
I'm sure the Heads Of State at Village Voice Media are not taking this lightly as The Chicago Reader did and ended their crown as the 3rd newspaper in this town,LA is vapid enough to embrace this simple and concise format so they don't have to weed through 25% of the front book with breast enhancement ads and another 25% of the back of the book with LA's finest escorts.Maybe if the Chicago Reader had taken their competition more seriously (Red Eye,The Onion,craigslist,Chicago Scene,Time Out,etc.)they would still have the same owners and a fighting chance of survival
just confirms that the average mope on the street has the attention span and interest in real news of a gnat. The fact that the boxes of Red Eyes are empty prove nothing positive.
An utterly awful mix of wire copy, gormless columnists with nothing to say and more celebrity puff than a month of US Weekly is, apparently, what the people want. Sad and alarming in equal measure.
I can't believe people are using the dubious popularity of the Red Eye as an indication that the Reader was/is doing something wrong. What a bunch of idiots. The Red Eye is free and features easily digestable McNews about Paris Hilton on the cover on a daily basis, as well as hard-hitting exposes on where the coolest bars are. The fact that it is snapped up in lieu of real news says more about the self-absorbed low IQers who cram onto the Red Line train than it does about Reader management. Can't believe some here are chiding the Reader for not dumbing down to the Red Eye level to compete. Further indication that the human race is doomed...
Doe is saying the Reader became lazy. It's not about IQ, Laughable; it's about trying harder. When the Reader was great, it wasn't stupid.
They're comparing the Red Eye and Onion popularity to the Reader. It's not a logical comparison. All three are papers with three different missions. In fact one writer here calls The Red Eye and The Onion the "competition". That. to me, is laughable. Ok, fine in terms of advertising, yes, maybe they were going after the same dollars. But how is the Reader going to compete with the Onion, start printing funny fake stories? Or more Vince Vaughn pieces to compete with Red Eye? What exactly got "lazy" and "stupid" about the Reader? Their stories still had more local substance and value than the Red Eye has in its entire brief history.
An LA RED EYE will succeed. Distribution will be focused on the places the non-daily newspaper reader frequents. Costly yes, to create a new "habit" of reading this new LA Pub to these new former non-newpaper readers...but if you build it, they will come. They did in NYC and Chicago. Yes, it may happen quicker in a commuter city, but the bottom line is that you can capture this audience by delivering the news in a "Red Eye-ish" package-which is short, sweet, and at times interesting. If you build it, they will come and stay. Commuter city or not.
Now that The Reader has new owners you can bet their advertising reps will be all over town (or out the door) unlike the old days just waiting for the phone to ring and taking orders.Yes,The Onion,Red Eye,etc.all have different editorial content but share the same readers and advertising dollars.The Reader rested on their laurels way too long and the other media mentioned pounced on them,The Reader was above the fray sponsoring anything in this city but now splashes their logo on a number of events that they would have never touched,the owners just did not want to put up the good fight anymore and walked away with the cash,the owners were some of the richest hippies in this city,brownstones in Old Town,Lincoln Park,2nd homes on the coast of Maine,art collections that would rival most galleries and left a legacy and a logo for all to remember.My point was that the LA Weekly will put up the good fight and make it very difficult for a Red Eye West to succeed and make the Tribune spend more money to do so.
Unlike New York and Chicago, Los Angeles' population relies more on automobiles than mass transit. I think that will be a major challenge for a free L.A. commuter newspaper.
Latest in The Blog
-
Too New to Review: Prairie Fire, Leo's Coney Island, the Southern, Revolution Brewing Company, and More
Prairie Fire, Leo's Coney Island of Chicago, the Southern, and other restaurants too new to review.
- Feb 8, 2010
-
Fewer Shoes on the North Side
Times are tough for shoe stores too.
- Feb 8, 2010
-
When Golden Earring Were Good
Wait, Golden Earring was good?
- Feb 8, 2010
- More»
Author Archives
-
The $8 Million Business Brief
How will the Chicago Sun-Times cover criticism of a massive public bond issue managed by the paper's new owner?
- Dec 11, 2009
-
What about Mariotti?
Jay Mariotti not likely to succeed Rick Morrissey as a Chicago Tribune sports columnist
- Dec 7, 2009
-
Reinvent Journalism and Drink Beer Along Hinkson Creek
Reynolds Journalism Institute is looking for four fellows for the next school year
- Jan 27, 2010
- More»
Top Commenters
Comments (12) RSS