I have yet to see Chicago's two new daily "newspapers," the Tribune's Red Eye and the Sun-Times' Red Streak, both sound-bite tabloid-sized papers that aim to bring 18-34 year-olds into newspaper-reading habits. (For coverage, see here and here.) Neither seems to have made it onto Hyde Park streetcorners; I gather that the red boxes are all over the north side, and that the papers are being handed out for free to people who take the El (the El doesn't come to Hyde Park, and I live three-quarters of a mile from my office so I wouldn't take it anyways). So I can't really judge.

Oh, who am I kidding? Of course I'll judge. I find it depressing and almost-incomprehensible that I'm in the target market for these things. But I wouldn't have read them at 18 any more than I'll read them at 31; I probably wouldn't have read them at 15. During my adult life sometimes I've forgone the NYT for a quality regional broadsheet-- the Globe or the Tribune. I have no problem with people who read their quality regional broadsheet daily. But I've never even understood the use or appeal of the regular tabloids (Post, Daily News, Boston Herald, Chicago Sun-Times.) It's not the format; I think there's a lot to be said for tabloid over broadsheet as way to physically present a newspaper. But I'm beyond snobbishness into sheer incomprehension on the content: why bother, except for sports coverage?

The Red papers are, from all accounts, worse. (One of them, after all, is for people for whom the Sun-Times is too challenging.) The alterna-press is different-- the Village Voice et. al. Of course if I'm looking for something young to do on a Saturday night I'm going to look in the Voice, not the Times (or local equivalents). But two-paragraph versions of a few of the day's leading stories? I can't see who would find that a good use of a quarter. I'm not predicting they'll fail, just saying that I won't understand it if they succeed...

UPDATE: I spoke too soon. The red boxes are now in Hyde Park; and there's a pile of Red Streaks in my building's lobby in the morning. I notice that the pile doesn't seem to get any smaller over the course of the day, which speaks well for my neighbors...