The New York Post: In a story that seems ripped from a Law & Order storyboard, the Post this morning tackles the incredibly sad story of the death of ABC News Radio's George Weber. Police say that 16-year-old John Katehis admits to stabbing the newsman in the course of a meeting at his house that was arranged over Craigslist. 'Killer on Craigslist' is the display copy; that's pretty direct. But what's truly disarming is the photo of this juvenile wielding a knife, taken from his MySpace page. The headline is fair as far as it goes: according to police, the young man, a professed Satanist, admits to stabbing Weber, though he seems to be preparing a form of panic-defense. (For what it's worth, the giveaway daily tabloid Metro used four of these photos, with the rather more lurid headline "Brooklyn sex-slaying teen's chilling boasts." Missed opportunity, Mr. Allan?) As sad as it is, the story is pretty hard to resist, even if the details are still paper-thin. So let's take a trip to the lower lefthand corner of the page! If you were told that the display for a front-page New York Post story read 'Sweet 16,' in juicy-looking blue letters with outline formatting on the text, and pictured two young men stepping away from a bare-armed embrace, one of them leaning back with a half-gape smile and flirty eyes, would you think the topic was the final 16 of the NCAA championship tournament? No, the packaging designer for "My Little Pony" didn't design this box; when you are actually looking at it, of course, the basketball jerseys give it away. And last but not least (three stories on the front page this week!) there is news of the M.T.A. fare hike. "AIN'T FARE" reads the headline, plus: "MTA passes $103 ride." Sure, OK! One last thing: Have we given up this quickly on the countess campaign? We take back everything we said about it yesterday! Bring her back!
Daily News: So here, too, news of the M.T.A.'s plans to jack the fare up to bring the cost of a monthly metrocard to $103 dominates the page. Oh, wait, no it doesn't! Because the prone body of Valerie Bertinelli, clad in a teeny bikini, takes up the entire top of the page! Here is the display copy: "Fit, fabulous and a cover girl at 48! How slimmed down Valerie Bertinelli wowed People." Wthout the demographics data in front of me, I'd say this is meant to be grabbed by good-natured women in their middle years who view Ms. Bertinelli's landing of the People cover as evidence of some slim remaining hope for themselves. There is little else to explain the Lifetime television network (where, for some reason, people like Valerie Bertinelli seem to get a fair amount of work). Is it still T-HERS-day over there? Next up, Nancy McKeon! OK, back to the M.T.A.: "HELL'S BELLS," the lower half of the page roars. A smaller superhed in red ink reads, "MTA PLAN OUTRAGE GROWS," and then there is also "Furious NEWS readers flood lawmakers' phones with calls ripping fare hikes." This attempt at Post-style drunkennes does not wear well on the front page of the News. First of all, "Hell's Bells" is a bit stretchy and focuses attention on … citizen phone call complaints? And the NEWS readers' reference is a bit too obvious a "community-building" exercise. Who will fall for that? Right, but haven't we already got them with Valerie Bertinelli? Front page wood can't afford to find an asymptote to news as big as this. It should have been something like, SHAME! with a picture of the M.T.A. board. Writing about people calling about being mad about the fare hike is a little too indirect for a tabloid front page. If space is limited, try a 16-year-old Satanist sex criminal.
General observations: It seems surprising to us that neither tabloid went completely insane about the fare hike, on a day when there was apparently so little else to talk about. It's also a little annoying to be told by the tabs to "get mad" when they have to make room for Valerie Bertinelli on a page that otherwise could have spoken very eloquently for us subway sloggers. In the case of the Post, we can see why this lurid murder case has to edge its way onto the page; and probably hyping NCAA picks is a necessary bit of business. At least what remained to the Big Story was direct.
Winner: The New York Post.
