By: Mark Fitzgerald Readers of the gay-oriented weekly Chicago Free Press named the quick-read RedEye as their favorite local daily, beating out its sibling Chicago Tribune and the rival tabloid Chicago Sun-Times.
The annual "Pressie" awards this year attracted "several thousand" votes, Editor Gary Barlow said in a telephone interview Monday. He said he could not recall RedEye's margin of victory over the more established dailies, but "it wasn't real, real close -- I'll put it that way."
Barlow speculated RedEye may have topped the poll because it is free and targets a similar young and socially active demographic that would include gay men and lesbians living in the city.
Free Press readers also named RedEye columnist Jason Steele as "best local columnist." Steele's column, named "Boystown" after the nickname for a Chicago neighborhood with a large gay population, appears every Thursday in RedEye.
Steele bested the Free Press' own columnist, Jennifer Vanasco and Bill Prichard who writes for the Web site chicagopride.com. The vote on columnist was very close, Barlow wrote in the Pressie feature, which appears in the issue now on the street.
"We're thrilled that Chicago Free Press readers named RedEye their favorite daily paper," RedEye Editor Jane Hirt told E&P. "And we're very proud of Jason Steele and what his columns have added to RedEye."
Readers also voted the Free Press as the ?best GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered) newspaper.?
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