October 31, 2002

So, Is Red is the new Blue?

Is red the new blue? Seems that red is the latest trendy branding cliche, as the Chicago Tribune launched RedEye and the Chicago Sun-TImes launched Red Streak yesterday. Both are newspapers targeting the 18-34 demographic, who are more likely to read alternative newspapers like the Reader (Chicago) or Creative Loafing (Atlanta).

So is red replacing Blue (JetBlue, SkyyBlue, Bluetooth) in branding as the latest cliche? It's always intersting how these things catch on. I remember One was big a decade ago or so, with the likes of BankOne, CellularOne, Capital One, CarpetOne, etc. And who can forget how in fashion it was to be a .com a few years back?

Update: In perhaps a telling indication of how little the two "red" papers understand their target demographic, the Trib's RedEye isn't even online! Oh, you can find out advertising info and editorial bios, but that's it. Red Streak does have some of its content online, but it still seems like it was pretty half-assed. If one's going to launch a new product targeting 18-34 year olds, then the web should be equally important as the print versions. And they wonder why (collectively -- I've got a Trib subscription) we've stopped reading the paper.

Posted by blipsman at October 31, 2002 07:53 PM
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