Herald Sun mulls spoiler for Fairfax’s big day
The Age’s compact dummy
News Limited’s Melbourne tabloid the Herald Sun may bring forward one of its blockbuster features of the year in what appears to be a bid to snatch attention from Fairfax Media’s relaunch of its broadsheets as compacts on Monday.
Mumbrella understands that the Herald Sun is looking at unveiling AFL writer Mike Sheahan’s Top 50 on Monday, a full three weeks ahead of the launch of the 2013 season.
Sheahan’s tips are a must read in the AFL-mad city and the edition is widely talked about on television and radio. In previous years Sheahan’s Top 50 have been released about a week before the start of the season.
This weekend the Herald Sun starts the 12-part Ultimate AFL DVD collection series, containing highlights of VFL/AFL games on TV over the past six decades. It was clearly timed to coincide with the relaunch of The Age next week.
I think you may see some big changes to Saturday’s Herald Sun lifestyle coverage ahead of the compact launch, too.
I accept there are certain connotations to the word tabloid but as appalled as Fairfax must be about having to adopt the use of the tabloid slitter atop of the former, as of Monday The Age and The SMH are going tabloid.
A compact is something a lady has in her handbag and will never be a word to describe the size of a newspaper. How can we take their journalism seriously if they can’t even admit to what they are. Most of the paper has been tabloid for years and there was never any mention of the ‘C’ word then, just as the ‘T’ word seems now to have been expunged from the Fairfax lexicon.
I hope The Age and The SMH are around for years but plesae, no more spin, it’s tabloid Greg, tabloid!