Paper Monitor
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
Wall-charts have given way to posters, and while the Times is still pushing its Ashes coverage, with a giant picture from the 1982 series, the Independent has been busy raising the stakes. Its free poster of the night sky GLOWS IN THE DARK. Put that in your smugly self-effacing bumper sticker and smoke it, Guardian-ites.
It's perhaps also the first poster to be sponsored – in this case by electronics giant Philips, or "Philip's" according to the Indie, which sees fit to slip an apostrophe into the brand name. Nevertheless, the introduction of big money through sponsorship opens up a whole new arena of poster possibilities.
But if Paper Monitor's experience is anything to go by, the Indie is on to a winner here, as any copy that could be hunted down in the office had already had said poster removed.
There could be some knowing glances when colleagues slip off home in the early evening, only to be betrayed by luminous formations of Ursa Minor or the Great Bear emanating through the canvas of their bags.
On another note, Neil Golightly wrote yesterday in the Monitor letters that Paper Monitor "couldn't really claim any moral high ground". How right he is. Paper Monitor is nothing if not a swamp dwelling incorrigible. The moment it crawls to the higher ground is the moment the game's up.