In the last couple of weeks or so, two seemingly insignificant news stories have reached my ears. First, Starbucks announced they enter the Finnish market - yes, there are still markets where the brand isn’t active yet - and second, the main Finnish newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat (HS), revealed plans to move from broadsheet to tabloid format.
My somewhat antihipsteresque circle of acquaintances, all but a few easily described as knowledge workers or belonging to the creative class, seems to greet both these developments with either joy or indifference. The positive commentary include notions such as “finally I’m able to read a real newspaper on the train” or “not having a Starbucks is like not being a part of the civilised world, you know.”
At first glance, these issues have nothing to do with one another. Nevertheless, for perhaps the first time in my life I feel strongly opposed to changes that have no direct impact on my life whatsoever. Indeed, I do not subscribe to HS, and I do not expect to use the services of the Starbucks brand to any great extent (if at all as they open only two shops at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport). And no, I have nothing against Starbucks or coffee shops in general – nor do I have a bad thing to say about printing news on a sheet of paper of a size more practical and easy to handle than its larger alternative. So, I guess I have to elaborate what I mean a little.
As stated above, these things have no direct effect on my life, so my opposition must be largely a matter of sentiment. And yes, reading a broadsheet has a taste of elitism in it even if I did not necessarily admit I felt overtly joyous for being a fresh link in a chain that includes British aristocracy who had servants to iron their papers in order not to get their hands stained with ink. But I do feel that the quite impractical size of broadsheet newspapers gives them sort of poise and importance where the very impracticality of the medium holds children back from disturbing their parents’ reading activities.
Hold on, there is a logic to this all.
HS has surely done extensive research into their subscribers and readers and has been able to confirm that the change ensures them better revenue. This is all fine and dandy – I expect it to be true. Furthermore, despite the fact that someone might argue that publishing real newspapers in the same size as yellow press sends out a message to the less informed readers that all the tabloid size papers are reliable sources of news and information, I am only a wee bit worried about the substance of newspaper journalism; there might have been a slight shift towards a more tabloidy way of expression in broadsheets worldwide and I fear this trend continues in the near future, but it has nothing to do with the actual size of the paper. For a bit of discussion regarding the state of Finnish media (in English), click here.
Starbucks has become a sort of an epitome of coffee on the go through shrewd service design and careful brand management. Changing from broadsheet to tabloid enables HS readers to feed their news hungry minds likewise on the go – as showcased in the quote above. Once coffee and newspapers become largely consumed on the go by the populace, the practicality of it becomes the norm, it becomes the meme: not taking time to go through these activities becomes a cultural imperative, i.e. a "system that is unconsciously imposed on a group or individual by the greater society.” [1]
It is bah-bye to the leisure of slow workday mornings where you get up at five o’clock to have time to properly wake up with the help of coffee and the daily paper. It is just so much more efficient to wake up little later, to pick up your coffee and news on the way to work and so forth. What it turns out to be is a vicious cycle of haste.
As an advocate of slow life, I feel it is my responsibility to shout out against take away coffee and the tabloid format. It is perhaps wise to stress that I have no intention of blaming Starbucks or HS for such projected misfortune. And even if the hurly-burly haste and the mobility of everything may form the underpinnings of the contemporary zeitgeist, it is the responsibility of us all, us people, not to let things slip out of control and force us to lose one of the greatest sources of joy and true happiness; long slow Monday mornings in the company of our loved ones.
[1] http://yuutokun.wordpress.com/2006/11/04/cultural-imperatives/
