TOR keeps a tab on all things NYC by watching for the front pages of the two NYC tabloid rags. I find that when done right the wrong or back pages of the Post or the News can give you a better sense of what is on the minds of New Yorkers. The copy-editors whose job it is to come up with catchy headlines to entice the average commuter to plunk down $0.50 must be pretty intense but rewarding because I know that I've often picked up a copy of the Daily News or the Post only because I saw what they had plastered as a teaser on their front or back page. When they are doing it right it's usually a very quick line with a play-on words that accurately describes the entire city's sentiment, when it's done poorly it is lazy and unappealing. Although not always the case, the best ones are usually a quick clever rhyme or a quirky Haiku while the worst ones are a carbon copy of the crap they've thrown on their cover for weeks on end
The thing is that there isn't nearly as much consistency as I'd like to see. The coverage goes from enticing to silly, to stunning, to ridiculous from day to day and the copy-writing goes the full gamut from innovative and clever to tired and lame.
I know that coming up with original material every day is difficult but I always feel like these guys coming up with the headlines get incredibly lazy, I mean how often have you seen 'Andy's Dandy' when Andy Pettitte pitched a solid game? The best ones are the ones that get you to pick up the paper because you just have to know what Mike Lupica has to say about Obama's job approval.
Well today's Post has a front page picture of Obama from his Hawaiian vacation dressed like a Japanese Tourist to South Beach with the question 'should the leader of the free world ever dress like this?
Now with Rupert Murdock as the head of your corporation you know this is all part of Political Theater while trying to sell as many copies of your newspaper as possible but it does beg the question whether the President is always expected to look "presidential"
No comments:
Post a Comment