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THERE'S A NEW DAILY IN TOWN, AND IT'S CALLED THE TRIB
by Marc Sellès
McGill Daily
March 19 2009
Montreal, Canada
Have you noticed how The Tribune is looking more and more like The
Daily these days? On February 17, the front page of The Tribune had
a queer flag adorning its cover and its main news feature, "Follow
the Queer Railroad to Canada," dealt with queer people fleeing the
oppressive Iranian regime for a safer haven in Canada. Similarly,
a March 4 opinion piece assessed the video game "The Sims" as a
"poignant cultural critique of modern gender constructions." Why is
The Tribune emulating The Daily? And what can The Daily do to preserve
and even capture more of the market for readers and writers?
Let's start by looking at what makes The Daily. Clearly, its Statement
of Principles (SoP) guides the content of the paper - "thou shalt
cover alternative issues." People who want to write for The Daily
are those who seek social justice; those who feel their voices and
opinions are stifled or marginalized in other media outlets; geeks who
love to write about quirky novels, plays or music shows in interesting
and creative ways. That's why the Culture and Features sections can
be fascinating to read.
The Daily publishes every letter it receives (provided that it is
free of racism, sexism, etc.) and its Commentary section allows many
readers to write in and express their opinions through Hyde Parks. The
same rules apply at The Trib, but it seems fewer students add their
voices to its pages. That the recent exchanges in The Daily's Letters
section about Israel-Palestine have been thoroughly lacking in depth
does not detract from the commendable fact that The Daily offers a
space for discussion - something no other publication on campus does
to the same extent.
The Tribune is emulating The Daily because it wants to appeal to more
readers. These are interesting to students and, if covered properly,
don't exclude anyone. While The Tribune has traditionally remained
in the areas of campus life and more mainstream topics, it clearly
realizes that these issues simply aren't the alternative hot topics
they used to be.
But the real issue isn't so much the readers as it is the writers. Over
this past year for instance, The Trib has covered many more campus
events than The Daily. For the most recent and striking example,
consider that The Tribune covered the talk given by the Turkish
university professor and Armenian genocide denier, Turkkaya Ataöv
(March 4), while The Daily did not. This dearth most likely reflects
the fact that The Tribune has more writers interested in campus events
than does The Daily. While readers are not necessarily committed to
just one paper, The Tribune and The Daily ultimately compete for the
interesting and interested writers on campus.
More writers mean more readers. For The Daily this is especially
true as it is too often preaching to the choir. The Daily needs to
broaden its coverage of student life. I know that the SoP calls for The
Daily to address issues affecting McGill and "related communities,"
but students are its principal readership base and so students'
interests it should serve. Covering student and campus life is just
as much a part of The Daily's mandate as is covering alternative
issues elsewhere in the city or the world. So the issue becomes one
of getting students to write about the activities they care about,
be it on- or off-campus. In order to achieve that, The Daily needs to
reach out to those who do not read the paper, most especially those
who have stopped reading it.
by Marc Sellès
McGill Daily
March 19 2009
Montreal, Canada
Have you noticed how The Tribune is looking more and more like The
Daily these days? On February 17, the front page of The Tribune had
a queer flag adorning its cover and its main news feature, "Follow
the Queer Railroad to Canada," dealt with queer people fleeing the
oppressive Iranian regime for a safer haven in Canada. Similarly,
a March 4 opinion piece assessed the video game "The Sims" as a
"poignant cultural critique of modern gender constructions." Why is
The Tribune emulating The Daily? And what can The Daily do to preserve
and even capture more of the market for readers and writers?
Let's start by looking at what makes The Daily. Clearly, its Statement
of Principles (SoP) guides the content of the paper - "thou shalt
cover alternative issues." People who want to write for The Daily
are those who seek social justice; those who feel their voices and
opinions are stifled or marginalized in other media outlets; geeks who
love to write about quirky novels, plays or music shows in interesting
and creative ways. That's why the Culture and Features sections can
be fascinating to read.
The Daily publishes every letter it receives (provided that it is
free of racism, sexism, etc.) and its Commentary section allows many
readers to write in and express their opinions through Hyde Parks. The
same rules apply at The Trib, but it seems fewer students add their
voices to its pages. That the recent exchanges in The Daily's Letters
section about Israel-Palestine have been thoroughly lacking in depth
does not detract from the commendable fact that The Daily offers a
space for discussion - something no other publication on campus does
to the same extent.
The Tribune is emulating The Daily because it wants to appeal to more
readers. These are interesting to students and, if covered properly,
don't exclude anyone. While The Tribune has traditionally remained
in the areas of campus life and more mainstream topics, it clearly
realizes that these issues simply aren't the alternative hot topics
they used to be.
But the real issue isn't so much the readers as it is the writers. Over
this past year for instance, The Trib has covered many more campus
events than The Daily. For the most recent and striking example,
consider that The Tribune covered the talk given by the Turkish
university professor and Armenian genocide denier, Turkkaya Ataöv
(March 4), while The Daily did not. This dearth most likely reflects
the fact that The Tribune has more writers interested in campus events
than does The Daily. While readers are not necessarily committed to
just one paper, The Tribune and The Daily ultimately compete for the
interesting and interested writers on campus.
More writers mean more readers. For The Daily this is especially
true as it is too often preaching to the choir. The Daily needs to
broaden its coverage of student life. I know that the SoP calls for The
Daily to address issues affecting McGill and "related communities,"
but students are its principal readership base and so students'
interests it should serve. Covering student and campus life is just
as much a part of The Daily's mandate as is covering alternative
issues elsewhere in the city or the world. So the issue becomes one
of getting students to write about the activities they care about,
be it on- or off-campus. In order to achieve that, The Daily needs to
reach out to those who do not read the paper, most especially those
who have stopped reading it.