Thisi s my second comment.

I hate it when shampoo goes on sale. It diminishes my hard-won savings. I now have two-and-a-half water bottles full of hotel shampoo, collected over six weeks around Asia and mixed together in kaleidoscopic swirls. As long as prices stay high, the whole trip was a bargain.

I'm back home now. Some journeys, the return is more eagerly anticipated than others. Six weeks is a long stretch; longer when you calculate the time spent kneeling in the bathroom, which counts double. Food poisoning—the great vacation extender.

A trip like this always offers more experience than can be readily processed. Incidents pile up and pass by almost forgotten, only to re-appear like pop-up windows in the succeeding weeks and months. Writing about it helps. But there's a downside to that, too. The written account can set in the brain as the official version—the writer begins to believe his own spin and forget the actual experience.

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this is a comment on a story.

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DOSE. Surely they jest. That reminds me of the acronym that the Reform party was considering for their alliance with the Tories. It spelled CRAP. Luckily for them, someone figured it out before the stationary was printed.

Thanks for the full picture on this, Shannon. I've been wondering about those green boxes.

Ha! Whether it's a CANWEST paper or an STD, Charlie C., can't see much difference there.

Since CrapWest is the mouthpiece of Gordons Ministry of Propaganda, I will do with these that I do with the Sun and Province - use them at the bottom of my fire pit.

Interesting, but the idea of quality print journalism just didn't jump to the fore when I read this.

No doubt they will be convenient vehicles in which to stuff more flyers. And no doubt to extract quality ad revenues from.

There is a little bit of an ironic grin on my mug as I type this, noting that the new Metro paper will essentially be recycled and dated news copy from the Interior foisted upon those in Vancouver who, I guess, really need reading material.

As an Interior resident I can assure you it ain't pleasent sometimes reading copy about Interior issues that is written in Vancouver.
Vancouver readers are certainly in for an education in small town reporting.

One positive for the Metro, however, is that it will be recyclable. I wonder if 24 Hours, which sounds like a glossy, can be used for anything else.

Finally, as the Real barking mad fox channel alludes to above, the DOSE publication conjurs up some pretty weird thoughts for a commerial product. But then I've always contended that reading Can/west carries certain risks.

Keep in mind that Black Press owns a bunch of community papers in the Lower Mainland so the Metro may include suburban news for commuters that the CanWest types on Granville Street rarely get to because they have trouble scaling that large brick wall on Boundary Road that keeps hip urbanites from travelling east.

“It’s a case of bad currency driving out good.”

But the people will have spoken. And I hope they will have said: "Don't peddle second hand crap to us. Spend locally and have original, solid writing and artwork instead of shoddy redesigns masking a paucity of content."

But I suspect they will have said; "Cool! I can win cool stuff and win tickets to see indie bands...n' sports n' stuff." And he who provides shall receive.

Amen.

Anything that will bring about the downfall of CrapWest has my vote.
However, one has to wonder if there's enough news out there for these freebies, or if they're just going to clone the pablum we already have shovelled at us.

I lived in Boston when Metro spilled onto the streets. Unfortunately, nobody thought about providing recycling containers along with the shiny green newspaper stands. What a mess. Has Metro gotten their act together for Vancouver?

So what will it be? Hard-hitting, controversial, thought-provoking, incisive, fact-checked, in-depth investigative journalism... or fluff?

Fluff. Obviously.

Still, maybe it will cause some cancelled subscriptions from the CanWest fluff, and force a sale of one of their papers. We dream.

The Dose's website goes on and on about how young and hip these juvenile journos are, highly cringe-worthy stuff. But can't help but wonder how Art Bergmann feels about their appropriation of "Young Canadians..."

From Dose's Creative Director's presumably self-penned mini-bio (really, check the site. I'm not making this up):
Craziest fantasy or aspiration: My fantasy is to breed unicorns under colourful rainbows, grazing on skittles.
Idols/influences: Those around me.
Shoe size: 8.5.
Favourite book: Vurt.
Favourite movie: Y tu mamá también.
Favourite TV show: Amazing Race.
Favourite CD: The streets.
Rockstar that you want to meet: None, okay... maybe David Bowie.
Guilty pleasure: Reading trashy mags.

Too hilarious! I don't want to up their hit-count by actually visiting the site, but it sounds pretty consistent ... favourite designer: barbie, favourite psychotic episode: bashing in the head of little bunny froo-froo, favourite sex fantasy: Jeff Gannon's mother tied to the hood of her hummer ...

Hokay, enough about what this might mean for the fifth estate, for the strength of the nation, for democracy itself... anything good here for we starving freelancers? Evidently not, unless we are all Dana Gee, which I should hope is not the case. (My god, just occurred to me -- is that dimbulb related to *Marcus* Gee?)The hassle is that publications of this sort aren't really going to need "writers" as the term is normally understood, any more than they are seeking "readers" above "eyeballs." They will briskly recycle Yankee/wire infotainment content as much as possible and, I should think, not run much if anything above 500 words. Now of course, most CanWest papers do just this already, so I think in terms of just getting a good *read* out of Vancouver media, we're pretty much left where we began, and in terms of getting paid to do serious writing, we 'lancers will be as fucked as usual... from the other side of the page in this town, it is deeply frustrating how few the outlets are for longer-length articles about real issues, and how tiny and impoverished. The test case here is Peter Darbyshire, a vivid and gifted novelist, boxed into the "books" department at the Province, writing 100-word roundups of coffee-table tomes and new iterations of the Da Vinci Code. Man, I do not want to do that shit. It's a sad waste, and these new little rags, symptoms of globalization at best, aren't gonna help.

It's quite hilarious that the publisher of 24 Hours makes it “... Quebecor policy never to comment in the media," I'd say they're off to a good start. Now, if they'd only make it policy never to publish hearsay, innuendo, rumour, press releases masquerading as news, titillating stories of dubious value, and the other dreck tabloids routinely fill the inches in-between the ads, we'd have a NEWSpaper. Instead, what we're getting, from the sound of it, is a downmarket Province. How much downer can you get?

OK. Everybody's had their obvious kicks at what are clearly easy targets. In my neighbourhood there are what seem to me too many Starbuck's and Blenz outlets. Yet they're always full...and so is the place down the street that actually serves good coffee. So is this really not merely going to be the equivalent of seeing crappy, over-"branded" coffee outlets slug it out for a couple of years til only one or two remain...along with the small good shop that maintains its clientelle (and maybe even picks up a few new customers)?

NO one is looking to fill their lives with more ads. NO one wakes up saying "I just haven't had my fill of commercials lately!" NO one picks up a telephone in hopes of a sales pitch. NO one stays interested in a magazine that confuses Ad-copy for news. They're so freaking boring. When a paper's management team is mostly made up from marketers and advertisers, Earnest C., you gotta know that editorial is not the first priority. And it should be!

Let's face it, there are niche readerships, but they are editorially driven not based on some sort of wacky psychic focus group.

What's wrong with wacky psychic focus groups? Worked for us...

And here I thought it was all that caffiene. Not to be too elite or anything, but I try to stick to channeling foxes, not psychics.

So, Mark, how do you focus a psychic? Exactly?

It seems that the Dose and the other papers are simply print versions of the every day more dumbed-down CBC Radio One with its incomparable JJ Lee and that other Lee (the gossip one from the Courier). Ugh!

Really, surely you are kidding, a tabloid called "DOSE" in my salad days this meant having, getting, or giving an STD. Better they call it "DOZE" so it matches their other offerings. Although reading their other tomes is the mental equivalent of having the "CLAP".

Psychics are most focused after an intense Kundalini yoga session led by a crack team of Britney Spears lookalikes with half-baked marketing degrees. Then you gather them together in a well heated space and ask them to go on a vision quest to imagine the ultimate way to vacuum the dinero straight outta the pockets of an agreed on "ideal" demographic.

I am a young journalist, and when I began school two years ago, my instructors all warned of a bleak future, in which there were few jobs, long hours, and no money.
But, alas, a newspaper war on the horizon, things were looking up. But on the job board at my school appeared an ad for Metro; it was looking for someone with a little more than minimal experience. "A minimum of one year daily newspaper experience is a MUST," read the letter, and the caps were not added for effect.
The idea of getting three new daily newspapers in Vancouver for my colleagues and I was like the clouds had parted and the gods were giving us a sign. Unfortunately reality set in, and we found out that the papers were not hiring a large editorial staff.
Writing gigs are few and far between, and having such concentration of ownership doesn't help alleviate the shortage of jobs. But it seems people talk about CanWest like everyone within the corporation has bad intentions. Within every organization there are good people and bad people, and it's up to the individual to decide which they'd rather be.
With such a shortage of jobs in the news business, there's sure no shortage of news (and newspapers now, for that matter).
But no matter how many newspapers there are, I say the more the better. More jobs for people like me are always welcome. Did I mention I'm unemployed?... I think I heard the National Enquiror was hiring a Vancouver correspondent...got to go.

And please, future posters, don't attribute my unemployment to any grammatical or spelling errors. This is a message board, not a grammar convention for sticklers to mock people who don't use perfect punctuation in their posts.

Of the three the Metro is the one with the right formula, and will inflict serious damage to CanWest within 5 years. The Dose is played up as the biggest thing since sliced bread, but if it was the Province and Sun would already be doing it. 24 Hours will be as edifying as a Victoria's Secret catalogue. Prediction: the Province will become a transit freebie, and the Sun a tabloid. And the Dose a distant memory. All within 10 years.

free newspapers. if this isn't nice, what is?

Er, better quality newspapers, billy? Actual news? Thought-provoking essays? Photos which communicate a real sense of time, place, and personna? Some information a person can actually use? The free papers my postman delivers go straight into the bin. Who needs more of that?

As I write this, David Basi is putting on his coat and preparing to appear in B.C. Supreme Court on charges which affect every citizen of British Columbia if they are proven to be true.

So today, March 11, we have the possibility of understanding and correcting an immense problem. We have the issue and the tribunal ... but wait: what's missing from this picture?

I'd say what's missing is a news service dedicated to the public interest. A news service which behaves like an intelligent Opposition at all times, no matter which party is in government. A news service which feels that the citizens can't do their part without knowing the truth. The whole truth.

Will the 3 old newspapers or the 3 new newspapers do that for us?

Posters here sound like the downtrodden and truly the future doesn't look good in the hands of corporate owners. Given the popularity of this forum, why don't we all encourage d beers to get into print? Let's all pitch in a thousand bucks and get a cooperative press going in the province? I'll bet money on this fish! email

now!

One has to remember that Canwest is run by lawyers who took over from a meglomaniac bully who never started a paper from scratch or out of passion for anything else but shaping the nations opinion into something resembling his own. The character of any publication reflects those at the top. That said, some of their papers, such as The Courier, are quite excellent. That is because there is a better balance of good people who care to those who don't. Also, the stakes aren't as high as with a daily. Furthermore, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that alternative papers are not exactly run by fair or impassioned hands.

Darryl Greer, your instructors were being more open and honest than a great many so-called post secondary educators are these days.

In this era when many professors appear to be spending more effort on their own private businesses that they spin off from the public sector and publicly paid carriers they enjoy, yours at least seem to have a concern for the future of their students.

Thank them. They are obviously willing and able to walk the talk of the ethical standards they preach.

As for employees at the Vancouver Sun having bad intentions, you are right. Unfortunately you can be an ethical giant, a lifelong seeker of the truth, but still in general terms you are identified with the product your employer sells.

If its owners and managers have an idealogical hate on for certain political parties or institutions, even employees who toil to overcome the obvious biases are going to at least get splattered by the big tar-brush.

Part of the problem, you are already living. Fewer jobs, more lax standards and an industry-wide effort to milk as much as they can out of each bit of work you do.

If they can get your original copy into the main products and then reuse it and reuse it to fill their giveaway publications, media corporations win and readers lose and cringe, but journalist pay bigtime as staff are cut or not replaced.

Little wonder few journalist, who like everyone else require a steady paycheque, are willing to stand up and tell their employer
either what they think of them or where they can shove the job.

These three new so-called newspapers, which incidently will be extremely profitable because they have little cost and lots of revenue, will hurt the older newspapers, which will then be downgraded to remain profitable.

Darryl, if you've noticed, CEP Local 2000, the union representing Sun and Province journalists has already expressed concerns the new Canwest freebee paper may be used by its owners to try to break a strike.

It's members have voted by about 90 per cent in favour of job action if needed.

The only other advice I can offer is to
be careful of newspapers and Trojan horses that are offered without a price.

Ok, one more. Since you are already surfing for some of your news, views etc., why not consider this medium? It certainly is drawing a growing audience.

A free daily from Torstar. Sounds great! It will be nice to have a newspaper published by people who actually like Canada.

When do they start in Calgary?

Three cheers for media corporations!
Hooray Hooray Hooray
No content? No problem - just look at all the cool looking ads.

Ever heard of feuilletonism? A feuilleton is the section of a newspaper that is simply designed to entertain the reader. These metro giveaway newspapers are simply advertorial come-ons. "News"-papers they ain't. Foiled again?

Here's Merriam-Webster's definition:

feuil·le·ton
Pronunciation: "f&-y&-'tOn, "f&r- "f[oe]-
Function: noun
Etymology: French, from feuillet sheet of paper, from Old French foillet, diminutive of foille leaf -- more at FOIL
1 : a part of a European newspaper or magazine devoted to material designed to entertain the general reader
2 : something (as an installment of a novel) printed in a feuilleton
3 a : a novel printed in installments b : a work of fiction catering to popular taste
4 : a short literary composition often having a familiar tone and reminiscent content
- feuil·le·ton·ism /-'tO(n)-"ni-z&m/ noun
- feuil·le·ton·ist /-nist/ noun

I will leave my judgments for when I actually get to see these publications. My first reaction, however, is thank goodness for some competition in daily newsprint!

Torstar, Quebecor, Canwest, what's the difference? This is the story of three of the largest media companies in Canada competing for Vancouver advertising $$$, probably recycling most of their "news" from their other corporate propaganda machines. I'll keep reading the Tyee, thanks.

Not only will we be inundated by all this fluff / propaganda / advertising in our face everyday, but Quebecor has already applied to the city to amend it's air emissions permit so it can spew more crap into our air while it makes this shit. Send a letter to mayor and council to let them know how you feel!

These infotainment rags may be open to subversion...demand a "Rant" section like that in Vancouver's The Westender, and then subvert the paper's agenda, if neccesary, amd my best guess is it probably will be, although it may be interesting to see if the more progressive Toronto Star comes out with a progressive give-away paper...however, the lame attempts of the National Post to colonize youth culture in a politically androgenous manner may not bode well for progressive outcomes, to make a decided understatement...

Billy Pilgrim, but have you noticed they're free because that's what they're worth--nothing. By the way, have you tried to fight your way throught the ads in the self-proclaimed "alternate press" Georgia Straight lately? The current edition is the absolute worst-ever. C.C.Commentator, Kurt and Shannon Rupp, got it right in my opinion: We'll get good stuff when we're willing to pay for it. The freebies are only after the advertisers.

Whatever you say about the Straight, you should contrast what is in it now - regardless of the ad content - with what was in it in, say, the mid-eighties (ie. purely entertainment) I doubt any of the new offerings would do a content-heavy cover feature on the waterfront development. And in the mid-eighties, the Straight wouldn't have either.

believe it or not, out here in the toolies, black press has come up with a new daily that is cloggin up shelves in libraries, gas stations, cafes and other public gathering spots. and, as discussed before, it isn't even really a newspaper per se, it's a 'flyer delivery system.' there is very, very little local content (a mole at Black Press tells me that the workload for producing this new paper has merely been 'dumped on us' by the publishers).
my take on it is threefold - 1) freebie newspapers CAN be very good - the Straight WAS excellent, esp under Charles C Commentator's editorship, and i quite like Exclaim! and even WaveLength, the paddling freebie 2) media ownership doesn't have that much to do with it - many of the stories in the Vanc Courier are vastly superior to Sun and Province and 3)to create a truly viable freebie, you have to go into that market, study the hell out of it, and hire the best local talent you can find. emphasis on LOCAL.
the weird thing about all of this (cf Darryl Greer) is that 'local talent' (including those who write for the Tyee) will likely give you a very good break on writing and design costs, especially in the beginning when you're starting up. but to simply recycle crap from other publications into your 'hip, edgy new thang' will clearly be a recipe for disaster. oh, those poor trees... well, good work for people who make recycling bins, i guess.

To the best of my knowledge, I have never edited the Georgia Straight. I have crossed the Strait of Georgia though, if that is of any assistance.

As a recently de-Borgified CanWest news unit, hearing news this evening that the corp bought a third of Metro to ensure that money rules the day and they won't have to rely on publishing an exceptional product to produce a 'win' in the marketplace makes me want to wretch all over again. When will citizens of Canada see some semblence of legitimate competition return to the marketplace? Never and a day? Sucks to be you (and me). Ya know, I should have left a steaming pile in the pod on the day I was waltzed out the door.

Torstar, CanWest, Metro link up on free daily newspapers, start in Vancouver

12:07 AM EST Mar 15
by CRAIG WONG

VANCOUVER (CP) - Media rivals Torstar Corp. and CanWest MediaWorks have formed a new joint venture with Metro International SA of Sweden to publish free English-language daily newspapers in several Canadian cities.

With each company owning a one-third stake, the venture began Monday with the launch of a 16-page Vancouver edition of Metro and a front-page story on the city's weekend St. Patrick's Day parade.

Initial daily distribution for the Vancouver area will be 145,000, with plans to increase circulation to 160,000. Similar free papers in other Canadian cities will follow.

CanWest already owns the city's two daily newspapers, the Vancouver Sun and the Vancouver Province, but Michael Williams, president of publications for CanWest MediaWorks, said there is room for another paper.

"We're excited to have another publication in our portfolio that can serve a group of unserved readers," Williams said in an interview.

CanWest also plans to launch another free daily newspaper in April called the Dose, which will be aimed at a younger audience that Williams says don't currently read newspapers.

"Our strategy is to target readers that have gone previously unserved. The Sun and the Province do very well at serving their audience, but . . . Dose is a very different play in the marketplace," Williams said.

Metro has similar free papers in major cities around the world, including editions in Toronto and Montreal. The Swedish firm says its weekly readership in Canada totals about 1.3 million.

Thirty-five Metro editions are published in more than 100 cities in 17 countries in 16 languages across Europe, North and South America and Asia.

"We are delighted to extend our current relationship with Metro International to include CanWest as we launch our free daily newspaper, Metro, in Vancouver," said Robert Prichard, CEO of Torstar, which has a 50 per cent interest in Metro Toronto.

Torstar (TSX:TS.NV.B) has various businesses, including newspapers, led by the Toronto Star, Canada's largest-circulation daily.

Its CityMedia Group publishes daily and community papers in southwestern Ontario; Metroland Printing, Publishing and Distributing has more than 60 community newspapers in southern Ontario; and Harlequin Enterprises is a leading global publisher of women's fiction.

CanWest MediaWorks is a division of CanWest Global Communications Corp. (TSX:CGS.SV). In addition to owning the Global Television Network, CanWest is Canada's largest publisher of daily newspapers - including the National Post.

CanWest also owns, operates or holds substantial interests in conventional TV, advertising, specialty cable channels, websites and radio networks in New Zealand, Australia and Ireland.

Torstar shares fell five cents to $24.05 Monday afternoon on the Toronto Stock Exchange. CanWest stock was down 10 cents at $15.

© The Canadian Press, 2005

I really like the free Gulf Island publication Island Tides. There are some excellent articles that seek only to tell the truth, and it is not overrun with ads.

Speaking of alternatives, I wonder how a publication like Tyee would work in Ontario.

Anyone out there willing to give it a shot?

As someone who published a free magazine in Vancouver called two chairs I am pretty aware of what it takes to succeed in that market. Lit crit, interviews with everyone from Bill Bryson to Maurice Strong, and a variety reviews, columns and articles didn't cut it. All orginal material didn't cut it.

At a guess, slick design, fluffy content and an army of sales people trying to eat the Straight's lunch may may a go of it; but it will not do a thing to improve the dismal state of Vancouver journalism because Vancouver is pretty happy with the current state of affairs.

What I suspect is, in fact, happening is that these freebies are being aimed at the lower end of the demographic already dominated by the Province. Why, because the research is showing the higher end, better educated, wealthier folks are getting their news online.

Bye, bye legacy media...now if we could just get this online stuff to pay....

Hey, Tyee, read yer own stuff. Expand into the youth/young adult market. Buy a new domain" (Gooseberry?)? There is huge niche out here of those of us who want to get the Whole Truth, in short bites. No long rambling mush. Buy a year's subscription for ten bucks. No columnists, user op-ed. (FeedbackInk?

What really saddens me is the Mentality of the Masses. If these rags were never picked off the shelves they would not only cease to exist they would never exist in the first place.

People don't want to think - beyond the next lease payment on their SUVs or mortgage payment on their oversized houses, or what super-healthy over-priced meal they are going to put on their Mastercard this evening.

They don't want to analyze, just grab the brass ring and live the good life as it exists for them.

Enjoy it suckers cause it isn't going to last.

If I am wrong why are the good newspapers and writers not getting rich, and the rags, to a page, on the bottom of bird cages?

Some of the better international news outlets like The Guardian are doing fine (I think) and the content is often fantastic. The online edition posts great essay pieces but there is a big problem with that: eye strain. You can't comfortably read 4000 word pieces on-line and who has time to print out and manage loads of articles? As for the "youth market", if 20-30 year olds begin straining their eyes now, the optometry business will be booming even more in 10-20 years!

The obvious marketing tag for Metro:

"Wake up with Metro, not the Dose!"

I was handed a copy of Metro yesterday morning, while walking downtown. Pure fluff, unfortunately. It had the look, feel, and content of a dumbed down Province. You'd think with a launch issue they'd want to impress with content. If I had to guess, the target market is: people who need a time filler to preoccupy them during a work break or transit commute, while they are away from their computers. For them there were lots of pretty colours. The content certainly didn't require much thought, and I know a lot of people who are offended by having to think deeply about troubling issues (or just plain think deeply). However, Metro, if the first issue is an indication, might be even too fluffy for them. Moreover, once mobile web surfing becomes as ubiquitous as cell phone gabbing, accessing endless amounts of fluff tailored exactly to your tastes will be easy peasy.

Seven paid ads, a bunch of house ads and classifieds stripped straight from the weekly paper kicked off the Island Publishing 'daily' in Oceanside Monday.
Some recycled MetroValley/Island news and the Reuters feed rounded out this 20-pager.
Unless the ad rates are higher than the New York Times, this is not a business model for the long haul.

Mark Mushet wrote:

"Psychics are most focused after an intense Kundalini yoga session led by a crack team of Britney Spears lookalikes with half-baked marketing degrees. Then you gather them together in a well heated space and ask them to go on a vision quest to imagine the ultimate way to vacuum the dinero straight outta the pockets of an agreed on "ideal" demographic."

Thank you for the first real belly laugh of the day, Mark.

And thanks to the Tyee for helping to sort out this complicated mess. Depressing, yes, but morbidly fascinating.

The Toronto Star has changed a lot in the past year. These days you'll find wire copy stuff about MJ on page three. They have a whole section called "Shopping". (gag) Even so, I wouldn't have believed a CanWest merger if it wasn't there in black and white.

So now in Vancouver CanWest has The Sun, The Province, the local weeklies and semi-weeklies, 1/3 of Metro, and soon the Dose. Plus BCTV and CH.
No media concentration there...