The New Times....They Are A Changing....

Yesterday, I noticed that the Riverfront Times looks slightly different.

That's the trouble with judging a book by its cover. A new dust jacket doesn't mean the words inside have changed.

Sadly, it's still chock-full of hooker ads and snarky, bitchy articles about employees at the Post-Dispatch being dicked-around by the Iowa-based corporation that bought St. Louis' daily newspaper last year.

But it sure does look different!

Add to that, the new and improved RFT website is extra super-fancy, too! It offers a comprehensive, all-in-one RSS feed, flashy pop-up windows and other features that, oddly enough, made me think of Sauce Magazine.

But surely the RFT wouldn't alter their editorial focus, marketing strategy or graphic design in response to a truly independent newspaper offering better stories and more interesting articles. Certainly the RFT would not do that. Or would they?

That sounded bitchy. And I guess it was. But sadly, I doubt it's true. The RFT's new design is reflected across most (if not all) of the paper's sister publications nationwide. And like the Duff's and the Simpson's of this world -- there's even more annoying sisters to deal with these days!

Somehow, I missed the news in January that the RFT's owners had changed names from New Times to Village Voice Media after this merger went through. I guess the "Village Voice Media" masthead makes the company seem more austere and independent, huh?

Like this parade of logos represents a company that's somehow different from the conglomerate that now owns the Post.

Here's an article about the merger, for those of you who give a shit about media ownership.

And for those of you who find it odd that the RFT's writers seem to relish writing stories about the employees of the Post-Dispatch not getting their paychecks, let's hope the day comes when folks like myself aren't writing stories about folks at the RFT getting royally screwed when the next generation of media mergers take place.

And trust me - they will. The mergers and the screwing.

Let's hope that it won't be as ugly as what we're seeing these days.

But I kinda doubt it.