PRNATPST.RVW 990501 "The National Post", Southam, 1998 -, %A Southam %C 300 - 1450 Don Mills Road, Don Mills, ON M3B 3R5 %D 1998 - %E Donald Babick %G Government order number (use this for ISSN) %I The National Post Company %O 416-383-2300 fax: 416-442-2209 queries@nationalpost.com %P ~36 p., 6x weekly %T "The National Post" Long, long we languished without news, oppressed under the heavy weight of the Globe! Until that great and glorious morn, upon which dawned--a competing national newspaper! Right. That was what we were supposed to believe when Southam announced that they were going to put together what became known, eventually, as the National Post. I had not been too impressed with what I had seen of the National Post, an opinion that seems to be shared by national media watchers. However, when we were offered a three week trial subscription, and actually had to do something in order to *not* receive it, it seemed like I should let the poor thing have another chance. At the risk of seeming to be ungrateful for a free gift, I'm still not impressed. Now, it is to be expected that there will be some initial growing pains, and even that it will take the paper a while to develop a voice and style. I'm not necessarily expecting a fully mature newspaper yet. But I expected a little more than this for all the ballyhooed birth of the thing. First of all, it's scant. I don't just mean page count, which seems to roughly equal the competition at the Globe and Mail. The margins seem to be suspiciously wide. Line spacing is uneven, and, at times, seems to be trying to stretch out to the bottom of the column. Overall the physical layout gives the impression of desperately trying to make the meager content fill out the space available. Perhaps this is a conscious attempt to try and make the paper feel more spacious or something. If so, it doesn't work. It just feels like a cheat. News content, just straight news, is very thin. The Denver school shooting happened during the course of this trial period. Both the National Post and the Vancouver Sun covered the story, of course. (Who didn't?) Both papers gave it about the same amount of ink. The Sun had two or three times the amount of information that was contained in the Post. I was astounded to see, in the five stories the Post gave it on the first day, no less than six repetitions of the same quote from the same student, written in identical paragraphs. (That's right, one more repetition than there were stories: one not particularly long story had it twice.) Gloria made a comparison of front page news for May 1, 1999. Vancouver Sun: Preston Manning facing problems selling the United Alternative. US accuses Canada of violating trade rules. More Kosovar refugees head for Canada. BC mountain climber dies in avalanche. Ken Georgetti moves from BC Fed to Canadian Labour Congress. Lead Story? Ottawa blames BC for delay in Nisga'a treaty. Lead picture? Jean Chretien meets Vaclav Havel. National Post: New Brunswick Indian activist acquitted of murder. Someone thinks taxes are too high. A bombing in London. (England.) Laura Ashley is closing its North American stores. Lead picture and story? Starlet waving at the crowd showing armpit hair: a study showing that women who shave have low self-esteem. The National Post definitely comes off as lightweight. Excuse me, guys, but you are owned by the same chain. One would think you might have access to the same news sources. You certainly have access to the same editorialists. Editorial we get in large measure in the Post. As Gloria pointed out, most of the "news" seems more like opinion than reporting. At times it seems like every second "story" is actually a column, an impression that is not helped by the fact that very little distinction is made between the two. It's a Black day for us all, of course, in Canada, dealing with centralized ownership of the media. The editorial slant seems to be, as usual, slightly to the right of Attila the Hun, but, what is worse, it's not very interesting. In terms of features, I have not found much in the Post to which I look forward. On the other hand, in comparing it to the Globe and Mail, I don't find that they have all that much either. I like "Dilbert," but the Post carries "User Friendly," which is its equal for both artistic crudity and techie humour, and is Canadian to boot. Of course, the Globe also carries "Alex" so I'm not sure how to call it. I thought Christie Blatchford's column in the Post was generally worth reading, but that was before I found out that she was responsible for the request to view the Virk autopsy pictures. (Reason given? She wants to write a sufficiently outraged column about the murder. The self-indulgent use of her column for self- justification is unconvincing, and a bit tedious.) The Post doesn't have anything like "Social Studies," and the closest approximation, snatches of trivia across the tops of the pages, feels a bit too much like USA Today's version of McNews. The weekend section is eminently forgettable. (I forget what was in it this weekend.) When the Post was being announced, vague mutterings were heard that it would indeed be more national, and not quite as "Toronto-Ottawa" as the Globe. I have seen marginal indications of paying slightly more attention to BC, but no overabundance of news from the prairies or the Atlantic provinces. Or the north, for that matter. (Western oversensitivity again, you cry? Explain to me the very large [and unintentionally hilarious] ad for the inclusion of the coming issue of "Saturday Night" magazine. This announced it as an "exclusive addition" to the National Post, but we won't see it: it will be, we are informed in tiny print, only available in greater Toronto. Actually we did see it: it came one week later with the Sun. "Exclusive?") This being the series that it is, I should say something about technical content. The Post does appear to have a weekly technology section. From the few that I've seen, it is slightly more pathetic than most such. But then, what do I care? My connection to the net costs about twice what it would cost to get the Post on a daily basis. The net connection, of course, has completely different functions than are available from a newspaper. As a side benefit, however, I get more and faster news off the net. And, with a little effort, I can get much more real information than the newspapers ever have, or ever will, provide. copyright Robert and Gloria Slade, 1999 PRNATPST.RVW 990501