Seeing Reds I: A Tower of Babble
The 18-to-34-year-old public that doesn’t read newspapers is a coveted demographic for reasons that aren’t obvious. The teenagers at one end of this age group are too young to have much money; many thirtysomethings with decent salaries and careers also have babies and mortgages. These two groups speak different languages; some of the 34-year-olds are the parents of some of the 18-year-olds.
Last Friday’s big story was the murder of Jam Master Jay. “A hip-hop WHODUNIT,” said the front-page headline that launched RedEye’s three pages of coverage. The headline signified RedEye’s insight–honed by focus groups, no doubt–that death is one more thing young folks think it’s OK to be flip about.
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RedEye isn’t sure that it’s safe to be serious. Its Web site, www.redeyechicago. com, says: “Take a moment and meet the people that make RedEye what it is.” Meet coeditor Hirt, “a Taurus.” (We’re told everyone’s sign.) “This Renee Zellweger look-alike (‘I wish’), is a fan of Pringles–plain, 1/3 less fat–Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food and Colin Firth (‘yum’), but not so much Shakira (‘yuck’).” Hirt’s intro, like all the others, goes on in this vein for a while before taking a turn with “But seriously folks.” Now we learn that before she came to RedEye, Hirt worked her way through the Tribune, where her last job was foreign and national news editor. The Tribune’s market research must have established that RedEye’s audience is less likely to appreciate professional experience than a shared taste in snack foods.
“Huh?” she said blankly.
Seeing Reds II: Ghost of Papers Past
Years ago sportswriter Steve Rosenbloom wrote what he calls a “big boy column” for the Sun-Times. Then that paper’s sports editor suggested he try stringing together a column of short, snappy, abrasive rim shots. They became “Between the Lines,” which was so successful the Tribune hired him away. For a while Rosenbloom was all over the Tribune sports pages, but his specialty, which he calls “short-attention-span theater,” always looked alien in the staid Tribune, and he dwindled away into a weekly appearance buried in the Sunday paper.
I also noticed that last Friday’s Red Streak ran the same Debra Pickett column that appeared that day in the Sun-Times. Her Red Streak tag is “Age 29,” and since Pickett turns 30 next July that could be a clue as to how long Cooke expects Red Streak to be around.
The biggest commitment Red Streak has made so far to its readers is to provide them with lots of solid information on sex. Last Wednesday introduced “Ask Ellie” (“She wants to romp, he wants to cuddle” was the headline), by Ellie Tesher from the Toronto Star. Last Thursday offered “Sex Matters” by Meghan Bainum, a senior at the University of Kansas who broke in a year or so ago in her student newspaper. (“She has no shame and she has no fear,” a school administrator told the Chronicle of Higher Education.) And Friday unveiled “Em & Lo,” another column you could have read a week earlier at salon.com. It looks like sex in Red Streak will be like the crossword puzzle in the New York Times, getting harder as the week goes on. Em & Lo’s theme: “Love, honor, and anal play / Should I strap one on to save my marriage?”
