The News & Record finally put Triad Style out of its misery.
For years, this free local weekly seemed to be maintained only as a bulwark against the possible incursion of some competitor. The emergence of the homegrown Rhinoceros Times, a pugnacious conservative alternative weekly that routinely publishes ad-stuffed issues, somehow didn’t convince the News & Record to put more resources into Triad Style.
Instead, its last editor, Jeri Rowe—an accomplished journalist with a real passion for the local music and arts scene—was forced to reduce freelance rates and run weak features (e.g. a movie reviewer who discussed films after they opened in Greensboro—generally three weeks after the national reviewers got to them). Meanwhile the N&R pirated Style's ads by launching a weekly entertainment section distributed in the Thursday paper and on racks in bars and restaurants.
Now Style is dead, and Rowe is editing the Thursday mag, which has been rename GoTriad to extend the brand of the N&R’s entertainment website. The new weekly is competent and thorough, if boring in design, but it's devoid of features on anything but arts and entertainment, leaving the alternative market to the Rhino. Rumors that Creative Loafing might enter this market persist, but for now, Greensboro has even less to read at lunch than before.
