Another Day, Another Free Daily Newspaper

Today’s news is brought to you by the Calgary Herald, General Motors, Harry Rosen Menswear, the letter M and the number 24.


Living in a part of the country that all of the local daily newspapers are owned by the same company, it is weird to have competition. Even when the telemarketers call here and you turn down their “great, it won’t cost you much” deal for the Vancouver Sun, they try to sell you the Province. Well, the local newspaper landscape has changed. Skytrain stations are now littered with newspaper boxes. At Holdom station there are now at least 15 different boxes.

A few weeks ago the Toronto Star teamed up with the Vancouver Sun and Province newspapers to produce metro. My first impression was that for a Vancouver newspaper it seemed to be quite torontocentric. The Vancouver Giants had the whole town buzzing in their playoff run, but the sports section focused on the NBA box scores. HUH?!? Who in Canada follows NBA over hockey? Today’s edition of metro makes no mention of the Giants loss eliminating them from the playoffs over the weekend. At least they have a photo of Randy Ferbey, skip for Canada’s curling rink, as the main sports photo. NBA made the cut, but somehow there still is no hockey. Maybe it’s because WHL, AHL and the Women’ World tourney are not professional? Nope, US college hoops made it in the news.

Last week the new kid on the block was Vancouver 24 hours. This is an endeavour of the Jim Pattison Group and Sun Media (not the people at the Vancouver Sun). This seems to be my favourite so far. It has plenty of local content and it is packaged nicely. They don’t use newsprint, it is more of a slightly glossy paper that is glued at the fold making it more like a magazine. It reminds me of those flyers that come in the newspaper that have tear out coupons. Both of the issues that I have read have been packed with stories, but it doesn’t feel cluttered. It is easy to read. These guys seem to have a relationship with the local CTV station, bringing some credibility to their name. (Interestingly enough, while writing this I typed in their web address wrong www.24hours.ca (instead of www.24hrs.ca) and was whisked away to CBC Manitoba)

Today newest entry into the free daily is DOSE. DOSE has the prettiest newspaper boxes. They are a bright red with black. I have been waiting for the premier issue since I saw the first box. Well, today it arrived! To bad the premier issue isn’t as bright and shiny as the newspaper box. DOSE is one of those dirty feeling newspapers. You know the ones that after you put it down you’re scared to touch your clothing. It makes you want to run for a sink after handling it. Dose is a division of the Calgary Herald Group Inc. based out of Toronto. Huh?!? How can the Calgary Herald group be based out of Toronto? To put it nicely, compared to 24 and metro – Dose is bland. It has a lot of stories, but it is hard reading getting past all the grey and black. Even when it does have a splash of colour on a page it isn’t very vivid. One thing that DOSE does have going for it is that it is tech savvy. They have theatre code text messaging. Just enter the code of the theatre you want, and they will send you a list of the movies playing. And they are the only freebie to carry the Giants loss to the Kelowna Rockets.

When I’m looking for my free newspaper waiting for the bus or Skytrain, I’ll be heading for the orange box to get my copy of 24.

I will scan the front page (or as much of the front page as possible) for your viewing pleasure.