julian@deepthot.UUCP (Julian Davies) (03/27/84)
I read somewhere the remark that the USA Today sales boxes look very much like TV sets, and that when you read the paper it turns out to be almost ordinary TV in print form. Perhaps one shouldn't expect too much of the publication.
jmsellens@watrose.UUCP (John M Sellens) (03/29/84)
From Esquire/February, 1984 pg. 91: "USA Today, Our Paper" by Richard M. Levine "Gannett (the publisher) had spent millions asking potential readers what they wanted in a national newspaper and test-marketing up to eleven prototypes. What it found was that readers wanted more sports and weather, less world and Washington news. They wanted color (sic) pictures, shorter stories, and unadorned writing about matters that would affect their lives immediately, preferably for the better. They wanted, in short, television -- not just reporting on television, although that too, but a newspaper that reads like television looks. "Placed in newspaper vending machines designed to look like television sets, USA Today's front page becomes a frozen TV screen that must offer something for everyone ... "However oxymoronic it may sound, trivia matters in USA Today. ... At times USA Today appears to be more compiled than written, with information "bulletized" (a favorite staff neologism) into discrete "factoids" (another) ... Stories are written in a uniform see-Spot-run style intended to convey supplemental information to a busy reader who is assumed to be short on attention, long on color (sic) TV, and often on the move. Even USA Today's staffers agree it's a "McPaper", ... that provides "McNuggets" of news. (Or as editor John Quinn put it more philosophically, "Life is a lot of little paragraphs.") My guess is that the paper's first Pulitzer will be won by the librarian." My question is: who reads this shi*t? And why do they have a USA Today box outside the Kitchener bus station? John M Sellens - U of Waterloo - watmath!watrose!jmsellens
geo@watdcsu.UUCP (Geo Swan) (03/29/84)
There are an absurd number of USA Today boxes in Kitchener-Waterloo. There may be more of USA Today boxes than there are of the local paper the K-W Record, or of the Globe and Mail. Each one of them bears the slogan "THE NATIONS NEWSPAPER". I Find this infuriating. There is a local bylaw that newspapers must get approval from city council before they place newspaper boxes in public places. USA Today has arrogantly not bothered to get this approval. There is a petition asking council not to grant permission. Mail me for details.
chrisr@hcr.UUCP (Chris Retterath) (03/30/84)
There are many USA Today boxes around Toronto as well. SOMEONE must be reading the thing. The last time I looked at one was in the States; I must say that they have really pretty colour weather maps. People here have also been wondering about the logo "The Nation's Newspaper". Some find it distressing. The boxes here are the same as the ones south, so presumably the "insult" some people feel is unintentional on the part of the publishers. They will probably put a sticker over the logo if complaints pile in. Presumably most of us know which country we live in and will get over the shock... Chris Retterath, HCR Corp.