Paper Monitor
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
After the fun of matching shark types to front pages (Paper Monitor rather fancies itself as a Northern Wobbygong Shark), there was much amusement to be had on the way home trying to spot a fellow commuter who perfectly embodied the spirit of their chosen read.
Paper Monitor took an early lead in the competition when a man with a fold-up bike and a satchel emblazoned with the LibDem logo got on clutching the Independent. But Punorama, heading home after an enforced sunshine break in central London, soon spotted a 22-year-old in Havaianas applying make-up while reading a Facebook story in thelondonpaper.
Seen a stereotypical reader? Use the COMMENTS button below to describe your own sightings and the best will be posted here throughout the day.
Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph is trying out a new(ish) trick. The paper will never ever deign to downsize from its broadsheet format (if it does, hunker down with a nice cup of cocoa and a pillowcase over your head to wait out the apocalypse). But it is awfully tricky to delve inside such a big paper on a crowded bus or train, and even the chauffeur-driven denizens of Telegraph Towers are aware of this.
So the editors have been squeezing more and more stories onto the front page in recent weeks. Today there are six, plus a big photo and teasers to the treasures within down the side.
Compare this with the Indie having - say it with me now - one, the Daily Express with two (the obligatory Diana and a.n.other) and the Guardian's two big 'uns and five briefs. The Daily Star has briefs too, only theirs are worn by the latest BB babe to depart the house.
Comments
The man next to me who tutted as loud as you can tut as a mobile rang in the "Quiet Zone" carriage this morning was reading the Mail. Didn't exactly surprise me.
It has to be the white van man who was slowed down next to my bus at the traffic lights, who appeared to be eating a bowl of cereal, rolling a cig, scratching 'himself', steering AND reading a copy of the Daily Star. Well, possibly just looking at the pictures anyway.
I saw a copy of the Financial Times lying on a train - ie no one was reading it.