Obama Day in Kenya
As I entered the fitness center of the Intercontinental Hotel in Nairobi today, Jan. 20, the radio announcers were going full blast: It is Obama Day, ladies and gentlemen, and we have four hot tickets to watch the Inauguration in the City Center, complete with an Obama party.
On a more personal note, yesterday lunch was al fresco in the outdoors cafe of The Stanley Hotel, a landmark of the city, and site of one of the scenes described by Obama in his bestseller memoir, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance where he tells the story of how he and his Kenyan half sister sat at the restaurant waiting to get service, but nothing would happen, then suddenly a white American family appeared, and the two waiters jumped with joy to take care of them, while ignoring Obama and his sister. Eventually, Obama’s sister stood up, took a bill out of her purse, dropped it on the floor, telling the waiters: You see, I, too, have money to pay for my food. They both left the restaurant.
Yesterday, as I sat at the Stanley, I could not help but to relive that scene.
Things have changed, indeed.
The mini Tribune is here
From left: Today’s home delivery edition of The Chicago Tribune; newsstand edition in tab format; Chicago Sun-Times; Red Eye.
The nation’s new tab made its grand entrance today as Chicagoans woke up to this new and smaller version of the venerable Tribune. As I don’t live there, I rely on friend and Chicago resident, Ron Reason, for first hand information.
Ron writes in his blog:
The new “to go” format of the Trib doesn’t break any new design ground, nor was it intended to. The goal, in a big commuting city, is to give single-copy readers a handier format of the paper on the bus or train. (I spent some time looking it over at breakfast and look forward to reading it more closely on an plane later today – without elbowing the person next to me!) Obviously, they hope to make a dent in Sun-Times readership along the way.
Especially for a debut edition, the overall package seems solid, substantial, very clean and easy to read. Many pages or spreads are completely filled with one story or package, at times with large photos. The overall feel, swept along by the Trib’s new elegant serif font, recalls classic tabs like Newsday, Christian Science Monitor (RIP), and yes, occasionally the competing Sun-Times, which in recent years has had several iterations of nice clean formats.
Without a doubt, Chicago should be the city to watch for signs of an upcoming “tab war”. Will sister paper Red Eye start competing with the Chicago Tribune Tab? Will the Sun Times have the last word as it tries to duel both of its rivals?
Stay tuned. It will not be the first or last city in the world where several compact size dailies see the light of day each morning, usually finding a core of readers for each—-give or take a few copies.
Example, here in Nairobi, where I work this week, Kenyans wake up to about five different tabloid size English-language newspapers. Somehow they coexist.
Will see how the city of the two famous O”s ( Obama and Oprah) handles it!
Go here for the entire Ron Reason blog entry:
http://ronreason.com/designwithreason/
TheMarioBlog posting #171