By Marc Lostracco

Whilst performing our pre-read ritual of tearing out Toronto Life‘s 8,000 annoying snot-glued ad inserts and heavy stock subscription cards, we suddenly came across Torontoist’s name in the mag’s “Roundup” feature. The chart compares Toronto’s four major city blogs: Torontoist, Spacing Wire (now Spacing Toronto), BlogTO, and the newish Torontopedia.
Torontoist’s raison d’être is listed as “news, arts, culture, snark”—and we won’t argue with that—while BlogTO is like “your geeky friend who’s always in the know.” Author Dave McGinn accurately lists Spacing Toronto as “civically engaged and proudly earnest” and lauds Torontopedia for its article on where to get really cheap booze.
Spacing’s “next-gen Jane Jacobite” audience consists of the obvious urban planning enthusiasts, but you, dear Torontoist reader, could be a “scenester who is as likely to debate the goings-on at City Council as you are the new Feist CD.” Our pals at BlogTO are “the Yahoo to Torontoist’s Google” and anyone who’s looking for cocktail party arcana might often find themselves browsing Torontopedia’s growing, user-maintained content.
We’re not sure how our own readers would feel about being called “yupsters, i.e. hipster yuppies” (BlogTO), but Toronto Life classifies us as “insouciant, with a good dose of cheek,” which we’ll gladly accept. We’re also not embarrassed to admit that we had to look up “insouciant,” but we were kinda nonchalant about having to do so.