Barely a year after it first appeared, Star P.M. from The Toronto Staris bowing out.
Star P.M. was a downloadable PDF, intended as an afternoon edition of the newspaper.
According to Toronto Star editor-in-chief Fred Kuntz, it is scrapping the PDF because of technology advances. Instead, Star P.M. will be “replaced by two more powerful products, offering greater flexibility, interactivity and value”, namely the new mobile.thestar.com service, and improvements to The Toronto Star website.
Trying out the idea of an afternoon edition as a PDF was a worthwhile effort. It may have not gained the audience the Star was hoping for, but the Star is to be credited for having experimented with new ways of reaching audiences.
It’s interesting that the Star is now pushing a dedicated mobile news service. To a certain degree, it reflects how it is becoming much easier to access websites on mobile phones than it was ever a year ago.
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