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Seems G.R. Anderson got his hands on an internal Star Tribune memo that proclaims the paper's Sunday Signature section is hereto forth dead... I'm curious to know what folks thought of Signature. Will you miss it?
"We've struggled with the high-end focus of some of the Signature content..."
Makes me wonder if it's the editors or the readers that can't understand this "high-end content".
Good riddance. That section of the paper had such an identity crisis. The 2 worst parts:
a. the shopping section, where the writers suggest overprices items for MNsotans to buy. That section is done better in MPLS/STPAUL mag, O magazine, any fashion magazine, the Taste section of their own newspaper, etc etc.
b. the feature on the back page, of some worker the area with absurd taste (and probably massive credit card debt). Last week they featured an event planner at the dome, who name-dropped a few pairs of $500+ shoes. um, hello? on your salary? i doubt it. I also strongly doubt that most Strib readers didn't also snicker at that. If we want to read about that kind of consumption, we'll read the NYTimes' style section.
Guilty pleasure, I actually really liked it. If the redesign was a "dumbing down," this was the place they seemed to put their creative brain trust. And from what I heard or surmised, one of the few innovations Stribbers were actually excited about. Sad to see it go.
i say let magazines be magazines, and newspapers be freaking NEWSPAPERS.
i also say "struggling with high-end focus of some of our content" means "we couldn't sell ads to any of the high-end names we were dropping, they don't seem to see much value in newsprint."
Why have so many Mnspeak topics lately been about the Strib? Get over it.
Yes, the paper's lame for writing about MySpace 18 months after you first logged on. And, um, yeah, newspapers launch and kill new sections from time to time. Yawn. Not exactly hot news.
It seems like when Rex ran this site the topics were varied and interesting.
paul
I, too, enjoyed Signature. (Hell, I liked it so much I was even a contributor for a while.) What struck me as strange, however, was how some of the fashion and beauty photos translated in newsprint. A story on makeup, for example, featured a pic of done-up harlot donning the so-called "natural look"--which was just an unfortunate consequence of the print process, I guess. How is it then that NYTimes gets away with doing skin-deep stories just about every Thursday, and still manages to look great in so doing?
Maybe what Signature needed was a sensationalized Weddings section.
I'm still mad that they dropped the brilliant, modernist design that they implemented in the 60s and 70s. Back then, the Strib had character, at least in terms of design.
But, the, I also miss all of Ferris Alexander's porn theater ads, so what the hell do I know?
speaking for Drinking Liberally, I would like to thank the Strib for calling us high-end.
Personally, I don't care what happens as long as I don't lose Withering Glance. I read it to my husband every Sunday and do "Claude" and "Rick" voices.
Paul -
Maybe no one else is doing anything worth writing about. Let's see the StarTribune is:
1. Buying the company that owns the P. Press
2. Dumping a highly touted new section
3. The largest media outlet in the state and thus frequently taken as represntative most other media.
4. Daily and containing most the news that is discussion worthy
5. Hilariously bad sometimes
If you were being sarcastic, then good one. If not, then some suggestions or original posts would be a good follow up post. I looked down the rest of the listings and enjoyed the baseball, vlogging and visitor posts.
Yeah, Paul. And how about the fat four-year-old? What more can you want?
Let's see, we have Peter on one thread and Paul on this one slagging MNspeak. Hmmmm. Oddly, neither gave a real name. Hmmmm. Who's next? Mounds?
As for the Strib killing Signature, it's actually quite interesting, if you are concerned with the business of media. They did launch it to compete with the magazines, because, let's face it, they can't stand to see any other print media in town get any advertising. Its birth and death echoes that of whatever that Friday tabloid section was from a few years ago that tried to compete with City Pages. They try something aimed at a niche, they give it a couple of months, it's not done well, and it doesn't make all the young and poor (like CP readers) or old and rich (like MSP readers) go all ga ga, and so they drop it because someone at corporate noticed that the quarterly results fell below budget because some idiot projected that they could steal all the ads from CP or MSP within a couple of weeks, because, by God, WE'RE THE STAR TRIBUNE.
I should probably go back and break up that last sentence or Peter Scholtes will be all over me.
rew, that's hilarious.
I too am fascinated by the fact that a 'major metropolitan daily' provides a column in which two aging queens troll around and prattle like, well, old queens, about gay stuff.
The one concerning their POV's on male bikini waxing was beyond the pale.
In a family newspaper!
You can call yourself Bud, Mr. B. Maginnis, but your answers are the same no matter what forum you lurk on. In fact, the guys behind Withering Glance are a) not old (at least not older than you) b) quite smart and funny and c) the producers of what has come to be quite a popular weekly feature, whether you like it or not, so it'll probably be sticking around. As for its "gayness," I think one column a week by openly gay writers isn't out of proportion.
Isn't it nice that the only weekly "gay" column is the most trite stereotypically themed thing ever?
tbart, your assessments are generally right on, though I sometimes don't like to admit it. So what are your predictions in the off event the newspaper of record rolls out a quarterly glossy advertorial product that only goes to people in the burbs making around 200 grand? Let's just "pretend."
I love Withering Glance, but I wish they'd have called it Alpha Sissies.
Sigh.
This might be brazenly off-topic for some people, and while I myself enjoy slagging on others from time to time, the whole pretentiously bitter banter is getting a little old. I also think it's safe to say that you're really not impressing anyone except yourself.
And now back on topic...the Star Tribune is getting rid of "Signature"?! How about they just take away everything else in my life that I live for...smoking is already banned, so I don't know what else I have to hold on to.
Oh wait...I'll still have my love-to-hate-you relationship with Katherine Kersten and her column.
Aww. Peace. It feels so good.
i hate to say it, but Kersten was spot on with today's column on visa troubles for highly skilled immigrants.
thoughts?
kristin, I know not of whom you speak.
Prattling on about designer menswear while 'cruising' other men is just not what I believe is 'approriate' for a metropolitan daily newspaper column.
Love,
Bud
;0)
new man, I've heard that, too. Just what the affluent suburbanite needs-- more advertorial than MSP already provides. If I were doing it, I'd assume that the target audience was smarter than they give them credit for being, and offer them a magazine that had actual well-written stories bracketing the high-buck ads. (Insert irony icon here.)
As for Claude and Rick, they are right up there with Kersten and Lileks on the list of stuff I just don't have time to read.
Seems to me that Claude and Rick's leering fixation on other men's grooming and fashion sense would tend to reinforce the conservative's view that gays tend to be , well, fixated on this sort of nonsense.
Combined with Strib REPORTER Jon Tevlin's recent spout that the gay marriage debate is of "little importance", we pretty much have the Strib reporter / columnists working at cross purposes for it's editorial mission.
"Alpha Sissies"
I love it!
i hate to say it, but Kersten was spot on with today's column on visa troubles for highly skilled immigrants.
Kersten writes: "Are these foreign workers taking American jobs? No. Before hiring them, employers must document that no qualified U.S. citizen is available."
Perhaps she should sit down and talk with my MIT-educated brother whose fellow programmers are dropping like flies while his company brings in replacements from Bangalore.
Global warming is a hoax, Iraq stockpiled its WMD's in Syria, and H1B visas pose no threat to America's aging tech workers. Which lie do you believe?
Mr. bud, I suspect you failed to fully understand Tevlin's comments. I think what he was saying is that lawmakers have been too busy poking their noses in the private lives of gay folks to actually get about the business of, well, legislating... you know, dealing with budgets and such.
Also, I'll fight this one tooth-and-nail: clothing, fashion, hairstyles... this stuff isn't nonsense! It's our life-blood! Oh how I wish straight men from Minnesota would catch on...
...lawmakers have been too busy poking their noses in the private lives of gay folks...
It seems to me, gay folks can't stop poking their private lives in the noses of everyone.
Does anyone have a copy of the Gay Agenda for tonight meeting?
I lost my copy and I don't want them to take away my Gucci loafers.
Oh good lord.
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