It was in 1984 that USA Today's began to show up in Winnipeg. Unlike the U.S., it cost 50 cents. Canada got the U.S. version rather than the newly developed international version. Eventually USA Today boxes that looked different from any other news box arrived in the city. In various parts of the downtown and even in neighbourhoods like River Heights, the USA boxes shaped like TV stands appeared, usually by bus stops.
It would be wrong to call it the great era of newspapers in Winnipeg as each era has had great and sometimes terrible moments. The historical start of Winnipeg had many scrappy English and non-English newspapers covering the region and beyond. The 1970s had an epic battle between the The Winnipeg Free Press and the Winnipeg Tribune with many innovations for subscribers. Sadly, that ended when the Tribune closed in 1980.
Luckily, Winnipeg only went a number of months before a number of local business people and former writers of the Tribune got together to start the Winnipeg Sun. While tabloid in format, it was local and distinguishable from Sun counterparts for nearly 20 years. The sports department was excellent and the yellow news boxes were easily recognizable. From 1980 on there were often four or five news boxes on prominent corners. Local, national and international. And a good book store or new store might have copies of everything from New York Times to the Calgary Herald. It was a heyday for print media.
And why not? There was no Internet and print was the best way to report news and make money from advertising. Our family at one point sometimes had four newspapers in the house. With no Sunday shopping till the late 1980s, a weekend paper would stretch over two days. The Sun eventually added a Sunday paper and people took a section each to read whether it was local, sports, comics or opinion.
USA Today had a Friday, Saturday and Sunday version that I'd pick up. The price of 50 cents a day was too rich for me but a weekend paper often had special sections. Their "Labor" weekend paper was usually something we picked up when down in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The early 1980s Columbia Mall had 71 stores along with Target, JCPenney and Dayton's. Prior to the 1978 opening of Columbia, our family had made a few trips to Fargo, North Dakota for the 1972 built West Acres Mall. Often it was just a day trip from Grand Forks where we'd have our hotel. In Grand Forks, as young kids I remember shopping in downtown Grand Forks.
By 1984, we mostly stayed only in Grand Forks at the Westward Ho. And we always picked up a Grand Forks Herald and a USA Today. The Sunday Herald was thick with ads that we perused before shopping. The USA Today on Labor Day would feature the upcoming TV season. I had occasionally bought TV Guide's Fall Preview but found it less satisfactory than reading USA Today. Our family was fairly well informed about what might be good in the coming season. A lot it was revealed in the TV listings of both Free Press and Sun. But USA Today compared and contrasted the offerings and got me excited about shows I might like.
USA Today also ran special sections for baseball and the NFL that were popular. I'd liked the graphics for the various shuttle missions. The most impressive thing that often attracted the eye was the full page weather map. I contend that more geography and sense of America came from looking at the 50 state weather map than what appeared in any national media or in education. It also listed much of the world fairly well.
I loved the USA Today logo. The new one since 2012 feels more washed out and even years later I'm still not used to it. Truth is, since the pandemic, I have only been to the States once since 2019 and that was this spring. One thing had changed and that is, it isn't easy to find print newspapers of any kind. Where they used to be at every gas station or news boxes outside restaurants, these things have gone missing. And hotels used to have newspapers at front desk for free or dropped by your room. I still see newspapers at some Winnipeg hotels but not once in 2023 south of the border.
Perhaps the assumption is that people will get all their information and news online. However, the roaming charges for Canadians makes use of a cellphone prohibitive except when using WIFI. The good news is that WIFI is far more available than it was prior to the pandemic. But I'll be honest. I don't like reading newspapers or magazines very much on a cellphone. As such, I sought out USA Today and found it hard to find a print copy. I had to do a search about retailers who sold it. Some grocers and gas stations. But far less than a few years ago. And far less copies!
Contrast that to Winnipeg where there are quite a few Saturday papers at most 7/11s and grocers. And a good supply any other time they print during the week. The digital wave is only a part of the assault on news. Polarization means that many people stick to their silos when it comes to news and media. USA Today has some editorial and opinion content that is ranked left of centre but there is enough to appeal to many with sports, weather and entertainment as well as news stories from across the United States.
I hope papers like USA Today survive in print. We have seen books and records make comebacks in part because people have preferred the format instead of a digital option. The newspaper once called McPaper has been far more resilient, colourful and national than than the regional fare that came before it but it wasn't really meant to replace your local paper. The national scope of the newspaper was what made it different and special. Here's to many more years of USA Today.
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