The Sunday Sun devoted the front page and 11 full inside news pages to a report on the performance of elementary schools in and around the GTA.
As tabloids go, we'd have to grade that move a D-. It must have left thousands of single men and women, middle-aged empty nesters and seniors feeling cheated by the content.
It made us wonder what we were missing in not having 10 of those 11 inside pages used for local, national and international news, feature stories and photos.
The scary part of this broadsheet mentality decision - using 11 of the 60 news section pages for one topic - is it was only Part One of a four-part series.
Sunday's epic had us wondering if the Sun's new managing editor, Michael Burke-Gaffney, voluntarily surrendered 11 news pages to a special report.
Michael, a former Sunday Sun editor, was at the helm when the Sunday paper surged well beyond the 500,000 circulation milestone. We doubt his tabloid expertise doesn't include broadsheet thinking.
Layoffs, cutbacks, broadsheet thinking, alienating segments of faithful Sunday Sun readers etc. , all are lessons in how to KO the Sunday Sun.
Update
Part Two of the four-part special in Monday's Sun: Three full news pages, plus a 16-page pullout.
Part Three in Tuesday's Sun: Two full news pages, plus an eight-page pullout.
Part Four in Wednesday's Sun: A 12-page pullout.
The four-day total for this grand tabloid adventure - 52 full news pages.
Stop the presses. This could be a record for tabloid excess.
This posting is not meant to be critical of Kevin Connor's research and writing efforts. The decision to devote that much tabloid space to one topic is the target.
As tabloids go, we'd have to grade that move a D-. It must have left thousands of single men and women, middle-aged empty nesters and seniors feeling cheated by the content.
It made us wonder what we were missing in not having 10 of those 11 inside pages used for local, national and international news, feature stories and photos.
The scary part of this broadsheet mentality decision - using 11 of the 60 news section pages for one topic - is it was only Part One of a four-part series.
Sunday's epic had us wondering if the Sun's new managing editor, Michael Burke-Gaffney, voluntarily surrendered 11 news pages to a special report.
Michael, a former Sunday Sun editor, was at the helm when the Sunday paper surged well beyond the 500,000 circulation milestone. We doubt his tabloid expertise doesn't include broadsheet thinking.
Layoffs, cutbacks, broadsheet thinking, alienating segments of faithful Sunday Sun readers etc. , all are lessons in how to KO the Sunday Sun.
Update
Part Two of the four-part special in Monday's Sun: Three full news pages, plus a 16-page pullout.
Part Three in Tuesday's Sun: Two full news pages, plus an eight-page pullout.
Part Four in Wednesday's Sun: A 12-page pullout.
The four-day total for this grand tabloid adventure - 52 full news pages.
Stop the presses. This could be a record for tabloid excess.
This posting is not meant to be critical of Kevin Connor's research and writing efforts. The decision to devote that much tabloid space to one topic is the target.
Does anyone know if it helped circulation?
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