The merchandiser at my local station, resplendent in ‘i’ red from top to toe, was full of it. “We’ve already sold 200 copies and as we’ll be giving it away tonight there’ll be no stopping us,” she crowed.
The man on the till in WH Smith’s joined in, waving a comedy bag of 20ps under my nose to show how well the newest addition to the ranks of national newspapers had gone down. Yes, this was Day One of i, the Independent’s baby brother that went on sale on Tuesday.
Anything that stirs up interest in buying newspapers has got to be a good thing for those of us battling to preserve journalism as we know it, Jim, and i does a great job in presenting modern, go-ahead, educated words and pictures to hopefully a new market.
It’s a very clever subbing job as we used to say in the days when subs ruled the world. Acres of copy from big brother Indy repurposed across 56 bright, tightly-packed, modern pages. There’s precious little original material and, so what, as the objective is clearly to snare regular non-buyers. There are no x-refs to the Indy so trying to get readers to trade up is not yet on the agenda.
I don’t buy all that ‘time poor’ tosh. Consumers will always make room for the quality media they enjoy whether that’s X-Factor, i-pod or i. Some newspapers just seem to have forgotten the reader somewhere along the way and lost them into the bargain.
WE LIKED:
• The colour coding across the top of the pages, although one day when pagination is under threat, it may turn out to be an extravagance.
• Caught & Social (ha, ha!), a cleverly crafted gossip column
• Panorama – Around the world in 10 days, with innovative advertising running along the middle of the pages.
• Your personal TV selector – divided into genres like comedy, game shows, documentary etc rather than the traditional hour-by-hour. Also a good way of disguising the lack of channel listings.
• 10 best...Cookbooks for winter on Day One followed by mobile phones. Well researched and neatly presented
• Around Britain, City-by-city weather guide. Clearly presented and information rich
WE DIDN’T LIKE:
• The front page. Day One: Poor choice of image and a ‘statement’ headline that makes it look like a Wikipedia page. Day Two: Crudely crafted photomontage that looked like it has been done in a fourth form IT class and a question headline that we don’t know the answer to.
• Page 2/3 spread ‘The News matrix’. Mish-mash of pictures and write-offs, plus a welcome from the editor on Day One and an apology from the editor on Day Two after a caption cock-up.
• Sport. Has to cut corners somewhere, so there are no racecards, few results and puzzles where the main sport should be.
VERDICT:
We’ve just played the ‘What can you buy for 20p?’ game and not got beyond a couple of penny chews and a box of matches. This newspaper is incredible value and deserves to find a regular readership.
In the London area, it’s up against the quality free competition of Metro, Evening Standard and City AM but it might just expand the market with its comprehensive offering. But as I turned the pages, I kept going back 25 years to the days when a bunch of us young idealists lined up behind Eddy Shah to create a ground-breaking new national newspaper called Today. It may not have survived but its memory lingers on...
