Ink Spot

When Metroland collapsed it left a void in the Capital Region media market. It felt odd being left without an arts weekly after all these years.

Thank goodness, the Spotlight has stepped up to fill the gap! Sure, you’ve all read the Spotlight, longtime purveyor’s of suburban news, and now they’ve jumped into the arts and culture weekly business.

thespot

When I found this in Starbucks, it was certainly exciting. Just look at that edgy graphic on the front page! This obviously isn’t your grandma’s Spotlight!

Oh, wait — actually, it is.

Yeah. it’s pretty, pretty mild — and don’t go looking in the back for Savage Love or racy classified ads. A few things you will find advertised:

  • Dentists (two)
  • “Tools for Caregivers Day”
  • Chair lifts
  • Alzheimers’s memory screenings

The paper did contain a couple of decent local stories and serviceable arts listings — but certainly not with the scope that Metroland did them. On the down side, there were a couple of pages of provided content and press releases. Gotta fill that space.

The Spot is a fine thing to pick up for free and browse through while you drain your coffee, like the recently horse/cow confused 518 Life. But there’s something about that graphic that bugs me. It promises cool, but what we get is more comfy than edgy — and that might be puzzling to strangers who pick up it up expecting a peek into alt-Albany.

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