i Newspaper

This week, i - a new newspaper launched in the UK.

So today I decided to buy it, to see what I think about it. Previous blog entries have mentioned that I very rarely purchase print media (with the exception of a subscription to the weekly NME, and the occasional copy of The Telegraph when the uni shop gives away a chocolate bar with it for 40p)

But there was something that intrigued me when I popped into the campus "newsagent" at uni today. Maybe it was that I am fascinated by new things (I like to place myself in the 'early adopter' marketing bracket when purchasing things like consumer electronics) or maybe it was because it appealed to me at the time.

As newspapers go, it's decent value at 20p. Granted I won't be buying it everyday because until literally every other source of news output is forced behind a paywall (something which I think won't happen, ever) there are more news websites than I could ever read in a day.

That, and the availability of it will be an issue - it takes mere seconds to grab a Metro / London Standard on the way onto a train / tube, whereas people queuing up to hand over a few coppers will probably bring London and the other busy commuter cities to an even slower trudge.

There are some pretty novel ideas though:

• The 'news matrix' - where all the main stories for the day are shortened for easy digest.
• TV schedules are also listed in types of television - eg Sport / Drama / Comedy

The quality of journalism was also of a high standard (as you would expect from the makers of The Independent) but there was a few things that didn't sit quite right with me:

Layout - I did find it a bit cluttered, and there were a lot of pictures which kind of made me flick through the first time (if that was what the intended aim was then fair enough, but I doubt it was). There was a lot of advertising inside, which added to a sense of 'distortion' - (I counted 6 whole page ads, and countless other half-page ads) which kind of made i not really that different from its low priced / free competitors, who also generate most of their revenue from similar sources.

That print journalism is on a steady decline is not entropic information, but charging 20p for i (in its current layout / form) will not stem the tide. But in times as financially difficult as newspapers are experiencing, i and The Independent should be praised for at least daring to give print journalism another shot, instead of cowering behind the (pay)wall.

Have you read i? What did you think?
Is launching another publication a worthwhile exercise, or will it be a dead weight on an already flagging newspaper?

Let me know what you think (in the form of a comment, below)

Paul