Round three for the newspaper reviews; after the Morning Star and Times come the liberals in the middle.
The Guardian, 13 October, £1.50
This newspaper is almost entirely in a Mondial format, roughly half-way between the broadsheet and tabloid. The magazine is glossy and stapled, and slightly smaller than the main paper; the Guide is much smaller and on newsprint. The paper has two folded sections - main and sport are wrapped around the others, with the magazines falling out. It's a much neater arrangement than The Times, only the Sport section is outside the main fold. The typeface is an open serif, with a fruity serif for headlines. The paper uses five columns throughout, we suspect six would be easier to read.
Home news 18 pages, and it's refreshing to read almost nothing about the Westminster village. Good handling of the David Cameron interview. ****
Foreign news 7 pages, a couple of extended essays. Trenchant comment, though from a relatively narrow ideological perspective. ***
Comment 9 pages, generally decent, though nothing on the Americas south of the Grande. On the upside, Burma gets very good coverage. ***
Business 4 pages, with share prices confined to very small type. Also 14p personal finance, 30p jobs. **
Weather Inside back cover. Very clear UK chart, small and readable Atlantic. Outlook in pictures only. ***
Sport 18p standalone section, includes last night's results. Dominated by the day's football and rugby fixtures; this is a fair call, but leaving just 2½ pages for everything else is a bit slim. ***
Arts 24 page Review section, 40p national listings, 48p regional. Utterly comprehensive, to the point of not needing to read anything else. ****
Lifestyle 16p travel, 8p family, 128p glossy mag. Nothing stands out as excellent, the whole package is good. ***
TV 6p per day. Loose grid for the big 5, potted lists for about 30 cable channels. Radio 1-5, 7, with more detail for 3 and 4 than for any television network. Could use a less frantic layout. ***
Overall: Journalism It's a well-written paper, attractively laid out - the size and clarity of print is a particular plus point - with a character oozing through the writing. ***
Value for money News and arts sections are almost worth the price on their own; the others add a little bit more. ****
Observer, 27 October, £2
This is only slightly larger than the Saturday sibling; again, only Sport falls outside the main fold, and the Business section is tucked right at the back. Everything is on Mondial paper apart from the glossy magazine (somewhat smaller), the Sport magazine (newsprint, slightly smaller) and TV giude (demi-Monde). Body typeface is very similar to the daily, though the headlines are a much more attractive sans-serif, certainly the best typefaces we've yet seen.
Home 23 pages, with a front-pager on the constitutional settlement. Lots of meaty stories, though nothing outstanding. ***
Comment 8 pages. Porter and Rawnsley the stars of a very discussable section, with opinion from most sectors. ****
Foreign 8 pages, behind comment. The section lacks much spice, and headlines like Henchmen may cheat gallows are emotive tabloid nonsense. ***
Weather ¾ page inside back cover. Large UK map, clear text forecast. Week is city-by-city. Good Atlantic chart, also covering Europe. ***
Sport 24 page section and 84p magazine. 13p of football is a couple of pages too much. 4p on predictions of the globalisation of sport is entirely speculative, and not backed up with evidence. Magazine is much better, extended pieces on Ricky Hatton and the rugby world cup. ** for the regular section, *** considering the monthly mag.
Business 22p including personal finance. Readable, but not gripping. **
Arts 34p section, mostly on Paris. Superficial coverage of all bases, only Paris gets good coverage. We're giving it **, but suspect that the section would usually get a third star.
Lifestyle 16p travel, 12p property, 8p fallout from the New Amsterdam Times, 120p glossy mag. Travel and property have nothing special. The NAT pullout is a bizarre idea, and shows the unreadability of that paper. Magazine is zippy, but we found nothing of interest. **
TV 28p demi-Monde. 4p per day, with clear grids for big 5, details for 8 cable channels, outlines for 18 others. BBC 1-5 on the radio. Adequate. **
Overall: Journalism News and magazine are well-written. Lifestyle lacks a certain impact. ***
Value for money The Obs concentrates on the front section, news and comment, and doesn't have much to back it up. The Sport Monthly is perhaps the only section we'll return to. ***
Next: The Birmingham Post
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