You’ve got to love it. I hope the consumers love it. It’s the Independent (UK)’s new offshoot paper called simply “i”. Launched today and costing just 20p per copy it is aimed at what the newspaper is calling “time-poor” people. The trademark of the paper will be brevity and simplicity for persons who are in too much of a rush for the full monty. I am a huge fan of the UK Independent on Sunday and have recently stopped purchasing the Sunday Times (again UK) altogether since I found that the ST was just burying my sitting room in useless paper without much content. The UK Indy on the other hand has reams of relevant information and articles that are just right for a Sunday read.
In Luxembourg we already have two free papers distributed daily at special access points that provide the same service as “i”. These are L’essentiel and Point24, both of which have a strong internet presence and look more like e-papers turned into print rather than vice-versa. Is this the future of print? Will the “time-poor” reader have more of a say in the evolution of reported news? Until we get some answers to these questions we should enjoy the marketing campaign for “i” that toys playfully with the word “i” :
i is 20p
i gets to the point
i doesn’t do information overload
i is all you need in the time you have
Brilliant innit?
Related articles
- Indy launches new 20p newspaper (bbc.co.uk)
- From tomorrow: i – A new daily newspaper for 20p (independent.co.uk)
- From today: i – A new daily newspaper for 20p (independent.co.uk)
- Will the arrival of i mean newspaper readers will desert the Independent? (guardian.co.uk)
- The newspaper world gets ever stranger (davidhewson.com)
One reply on “i”
An eloquent example of how present day philosophy taints quality of life.
There is a maximum of what we can enjoy in life. Let us say we can do 100 things.
A basic principle is that one should not exceed doing 85 of these things to still have room to deal with the unavoidable unforeseen without going beyond the 100.
Trying to just do a 101 plus will mean that all enjoyment of doing the 100 is contaminated.
My experience tells me that those going beyond the 100 (the order of the day) have no doubt in their minds that this is the way to go, yet do not realize how life’s enjoyment is prejudiced. Such a comment as mine is seen as being opinionated, patronizing and old fashioned (which of course it is). Unfortunately it is also true :)