When the three free daily papers started appearing in Vancouver in March and April of last year, I noted and compared them for fun.

They’ve had several months to find their grooves, so after the jump I give them another going-over. The summary: Metro for actual news, 24 Hours for your Lindsay Lohan/Scarlett Johansson photos on high-quality paper, and Dose isn’t really a local paper.

Now the details.

Metro is the paper I want to like the most. Actual news, actual local content, nice paper, clean layout, what’s not to like?

And yet somehow, it has also managed to be the blandest paper, though I am fond of Rick McGinnis’ entertainment writing, and as I said, having actual local news and coverage is worth something. Most importantly, the crossword is acceptable and they’ve added a Sudoku puzzle to catch the latest trends.

24 Hours is the paper I want to hate the most, but don’t. The tone is set by throwing glossy photos and ludicrous celebrity news on page 2 (actual tidbit: there are rumors Lindsay Lohan is pregnant, and she was admitted to hospital after a “massive asthma attack”). I never quite recover from that bit of brain damage. After that, the paper takes a turn for the better, with local news stories like the opening of the VCC-Clark Drive Skytrain station, and a bunch of lifestyle jounalism (”Shake it…smoothie style” is the headline on a page of smoothie recipes) that is mostly lost on me. But glossy paper, acceptable local columnists, and a binding that stays together (24 is owned by a paper maker) make me smile, and the crossword and sudoku are nice, too.

Dose. Why do you suck? Bad paper. shoddy production quality. Virtually no local news, perfunctory local arts and entertainment coverage, and a terrible crossword. I sometimes like the feature articles, but the paper is just no fun to read. Did I mention the layout is pretty much the worst of the three papers too?

The winner? Probably the Georgia Straight. But if you have to read something on the bus, the Metro is the only one that doesn’t seem to be actively working to make me stupider. Thus, brains defeats a nice photo of Scarlett Johansson, and Dose is defeated by its own suck.