New newspaper hits Hamilton

raisethehammer · #1 Posted **Oct 9, 2008, 3:35 PM**

??? haven't heard a thing.
has anyone else??
who is doing it? Torstar? haha.

raisethehammer · #2 Posted **Oct 9, 2008, 3:36 PM**

LikeHamilton · #3 Posted **Oct 9, 2008, 4:08 PM**

Quote:

New newspaper hits Hamilton
CHML 10/9/2008

You may have heard the ads here on CHML, and it's now a reality.

Hamilton's newest newspaper hit the streets today.

The Bay Observer is a weekly.

It describes itself as your weekend read in Hamilton and Burlington.

This is a paper by John Best formally of CHCH. It is an anti-Catch web site that is branching into a newspaper. I really do not care of what its politics are. I just want some competition to the Spec. I hope it becomes a daily!

http://www.bayobserver.ca/

raisethehammer · #4 Posted **Oct 9, 2008, 4:56 PM**

apparently it's John Best....he ran for council before... blah.

SteelTown · #5 Posted **Oct 9, 2008, 5:08 PM**

I like the name of the newspaper, Bay Observer.

hmagazine · #6 Posted **Oct 10, 2008, 12:02 AM**

Anyone heard of this yet: http://bayobserver.ca/

Just found a hard copy in my mailbox at home. I almost confused it with a Brabant Paper...almost.

hmagazine · #7 Posted **Oct 10, 2008, 1:04 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by LikeHamilton

This is a paper by John Best formally of CHCH. It is an anti-Catch web site that is branching into a newspaper. I really do not care of what its politics are. I just want some competition to the Spec. I hope it becomes a daily!

http://www.bayobserver.ca/

I'm not saying this because I run an independent monthly in town - but this won't be competing with the Spec on any level...

flar · #8 Posted **Oct 10, 2008, 3:10 AM**

This paper was in my mailbox today, I haven't looked at it yet.

Boomtown_Hamilton · #9 Posted **Oct 11, 2008, 12:13 PM**

I don't know if it will give the Spectator a run for it's money but maybe it will give H-Magazine a run for its money. (nudge nudge wink wink)

highwater · #10 Posted **Oct 11, 2008, 2:36 PM**

You got a stake in the BO, Boomtown?

Anyway, highly doubtful it will give Hmag a run for it's money. It's obviously intended for a very different audience. Judging by their lame website, I won't be going out of my way to pick this one up, and it hasn't landed in my mailbox. Guess I have an unfashionable postal code.

Boomtown_Hamilton · #11 Posted **Oct 11, 2008, 4:37 PM**

Helen,

By the way, you come across very defensive in that last response. Do you have a stake with H-Magazine??? ... Indeed it is intended for a different type of audience.

highwater · #12 Posted **Oct 11, 2008, 10:58 PM**

That was irony, not defensiveness. My area code is... well, let's just say it's not too shabby. Just the sort of area a start-up publication might target in fact, if it knew what it was doing.

Boomtown_Hamilton · #13 Posted **Oct 12, 2008, 8:52 AM**

Helen,

Do you live on the mountain? When I lived on the mountain for 4 years I never saw H-Magazine anywhere....I move back down to the lower city and all of a sudden I see it everywhere in the core...I finally picked up a copy of it when I moved downtown and I really don't know what to say here about it....I'm trying my best not to be rude here BUT....let's just say that it needs some improvement....I find that it lacks substance and even the cartoon they had in there was pretty lame....the only saving grace they had with that particular issue I picked up was a decent write-up on heritage issues by Graham Crawford......Oh well, at least I didn't have to pay a cent for it.

Cheers!

RC

raisethehammer · #14 Posted **Oct 12, 2008, 11:54 AM**

My postal code must be too 'urban', 'downtown', 'slummy', 'violent' as well for this new rag.
Website is crap.
HMag new issue is out and is awesome. Do check it out.

highwater · #15 Posted **Oct 12, 2008, 6:30 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boomtown_Hamilton

Do you live on the mountain?

Gee, Boomtown. Why would you think that? Are you sayin' there aren't any not-too-shabby 'hoods in the lower city?

I only have a 'stake' in Hmag insofar as I have a stake in Hamilton, and I share their love of Hamilton's history and culture, as well as urban life in general.

If you find their content wanting, by all means fill the void. They welcome contributions.

Boomtown_Hamilton · #16 Posted **Oct 13, 2008, 10:43 AM**

Helen, quite the opposite, I hated the mountain. I was born and raised in the Lower city west-end near Dundurn Castle, Lower city is where its at....

I've never seen this Bay Observer before to tell you the truth but when someone on this thread mentioned that they were Anti-CATCH I instantly became not a fan but interested in finding out some more about them.

Their web site needs some work yes but after going over it a bit the other day the content was very good so all they need to do now is make themselves more presentable, maybe even add some colour to the site.

H-Magazine would have to pay me to make contributions, I don't work for free which basically means they can't afford me, that's the first thing. The second thing is they would have to distance themselves with CATCH before I even seriously considered making any serious contributions there and I don't think that's about to happen anytime soon. Last but not least, their editor needs a lesson or two with manners and social skills.

Have a good day Helen.

RC

vid · #17 Posted **Oct 13, 2008, 11:01 AM**

The website is similar to NetNewsLedger, a web-only news site up here, but with much less content. The use of serif font for titles and body text and the poor web design are common in these little media startups, I find.

I obviously don't have access to a print copy, but it looks like any small town independent newspaper start up I've seen. I'm sure it will be a great venue for local businesses to advertise. Our weekly paper is about 60% ads these days. Probably won't be very respectable though. Free weeklies peppered with ads never are.

highwater · #18 Posted **Oct 13, 2008, 2:11 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boomtown_Hamilton

Last but not least, their editor needs a lesson or two with manners and social skills.

DC83 · #19 Posted **Oct 13, 2008, 2:25 PM**

Boring!! I couldn't even read more than 3 lines per article.

If RaiseTheHammer were to go into Print, it would def give The Spec a run for it's money... even as a Weekly!

Boomtown_Hamilton · #20 Posted **Oct 13, 2008, 11:55 PM**

Even though I don't always agree with what they have to say over at Raisethehammer I respect the fact that at least they advertise who the author(s) of their articles are. With this Bay Observer, just like with the CATCH web site, you never really know who is doing the talking over there because they never credit their writers. In addition to that I e-mailed them more than two days ago and never got a response back so that's already one big strike against the Bay Observer from me.