Nobody Needs the Star P.M.

I have to give the Toronto Star credit for upping the quality of their web site over the last year. They've made some great moves such as introducing del.icio.us tagging, adding blogs and podcasts and publishing their content in RSS.

But it's their latest move that leaves me scratching my head. Earlier this week, the Star announced something they call The Star P.M..

According to the paper, The Star P.M. will help us satisfy our craving for afternoon news. In reality, it's a thinly veiled attempt to sell more print advertising to marketers that just can't get enough newsprint. There is no need for this product. The Star already updates their web site throughout the day with breaking news. Why anyone would want news as a PDF instead of html is beyond me.

The fact is, they won't. Obviously I don't know this to definitely be true but if I was betting my rental apartment I'd gamble this sad excuse for media innovation won't be around much longer than it takes to spell, uh, paved.

By the way, what's up with all the updates on the webmaking blog?

Image: The Toronto Star