advertising » Mancubist: Life is good in Manchester

A freesheet war for Manchester?

I’m happy to admit that I’m a fan of Manchester’s free commuter newspaper, Metro.

I can whizz through the sport, listings, previews and news (in that particular order) in less than the time it takes me to get to work, then leave it for the next bored commuter to read.

Today, for example, I picked up an already-thumbed copy, absorbed what I needed and put it back down. I then watched as one person, then another, read the same copy. That’s at least four readers – and who knows how many more will read that copy today? It’s a mysophobiac‘s worst nightmare.

G24: The Guardian’s downloadable version

I was a bit slow to notice but those clever monkeys over at The Guardian have done it again:

“The Guardian is launching a new service providing readers with a rapid overview of news that will be updated every 15 minutes.

“G24 will be a free service featuring news content from the Guardian Unlimited website across five areas: general news, international, economics, sport and media.”

How to ban advertising online

Besides England’s 2-0 win against Trinidad & Tobago, The Guardian’s front page today is devoted to the British government’s attempts to tackle obesity.

Fair game, I say, but what grabbed my attention particularly was the first paragraph:

“Controls on junk food advertising could be extended to websites, text messaging, computer games, cinemas and posters under radical plans being drawn up by the government, the Guardian has learned.”