The Sun-Times’ Red Streak was developed as an answer to rumors that the Chicago Tribune was launching a tabloid, youth-oriented publication. The Sun-Times felt threatened that the staid, old paper across the street was not only planning to tread into tabloid-land, but also, it discovered, being young and hip might be a good, marketable, profitable move.
We couldn’t let that happen.
So, in the secrecy of the seventh floor publisher’s office, a team of mostly young journalists from Sun-Times satellite papers and lead editors from within the Sun-Times endeavored to create a spoiler paper that would look like and read like whatever the folks across the way were creating. Along the way, launch team members decided the paper had to be good. Using competitive analyses and the rumor mill, we deduced the competitor paper’s name and size. I proved invaluable to the creation of Red Streak through my existing relationships with vendors, syndicators and subject-matter experts. Basically, I leveraged my title-creation experienced in a fast-paced, secretive, real-time environment. For that, I was was named Red Streak’s Editor in Chief.
From there, we created a paper that would intrigue young-adult readers who might not want to commit to a traditional daily read but wanted to know what was going on in the world. We also concepted a paper that married imagery and words in a manner the newspaper industry had never experienced. We wrote in a tone that rang with authenticity.
A funny thing: Older readers liked the larger type and colorful layouts. Go figure.