Train commuters have vented their spleens over the imminent loss of mX, the paper that dutifully printed their spleen bile - and so much more - every afternoon for almost 15 years.
Since the first edition was printed in Melbourne in March 2001, the paper has become a regular afternoon fixture for daily commuters.
Discarding an mX on your freshly vacated seat wasn't the action of a lazy tosser. It was good citizenship.
But News Corp confirmed on Thursday afternoon that the sassy newspaper would be axed, and readers have mourned its demise and reminisced about the good times.
@MsEmily_C and I are devo to hear the news @mX ... A loved part of our daily train home ritual during high school x #ibelieveinprintmedia— Cerise (@ccceriseee) May 28, 2015
Thirty full-time journalists and producers have been left in limbo. The team that honed taxing longreads into bite-sized news morsels; who crafted wicked headlines that took a couple of station stops for the truly crude meaning to sink in; who never failed to find the weirdest, wackiest stories of the day from around the globe, and crammed all the 'worthy' news onto its "Boring but Important" page.
Pretty bummed about @mX going. It had it's own special, weird, silly thing going, and will be missed.— Pip Radmuscles (@PipRasmussen) May 28, 2015
From the "Vent Your Spleen" responses that made no sense without knowing what the previous day's spleen venting was all about, to the double page of puntastic fashion and celebrity news captions.
The "Weird News" section also proved a winner with readers, as did the accidental delight that came from finding a particularly stunning supermodel that looked slightly deranged when the coloured ink had been printed just a fraction too far to the left.
Gone too, is the "Overheard' section that might have had you giggling from Wynyard to Summer Hill. Was it cheating to make a submission you hadn't overheard on the train? The mX purist would say yes.
And the wayward romantic "Here's Looking At You" -- the public service for Sliding Doors-esque lovers that occasionally topped Tinder in the creep-factor stakes.
Sad day for commuters with @mX announcing they are closing. Now how are train passengers supposed to find love? #mx #hereslookingatyou— Andrew Brown (@AndrewBrownFCN) May 28, 2015
"To the Asian guy with the red backpack at North Sydney today. I wish I was that backpack. Coffee?" What will we do without this gold, @mx?— Matthew Bevan (@MatthewBevan) May 28, 2015
@mX is no more?? How will all my train station admirers contact me now??! #goodnightsweetprince— Anthony Gough (@GoughAnthony) May 28, 2015
Even the haters loved to hate-read the rag.
Retail news: sales of Sorbent and other toilet paper brands are surging across Brisbane following @rupertmurdoch 's decision to axe @mX— Don Gordon-Brown (@drongojourno) May 28, 2015
mX knew what it was and it never took itself too seriously. And that is why most of the criticisms that slammed its relevance and newsworthiness don't quite stick.
But the young audience that once dutifully accepted the half-folded editions at ticket gates are now too busy looking down at their smartphones to see the hands of mX hander-outerers standing in front of them.
So even a free newspaper cannot succeed - News Corp axes commuter newspaper @mX. Will you miss it? pic.twitter.com/8IOLHfdRLC— Paige Cockburn (@PaigeCockburn) May 28, 2015
Or at least that's a big part of the justification for closing the paper, according to New Corp bosses (though they probably used correct title for the hander-outerers).
The last editions will fill train stations across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane on 12 June.
What will you miss about beloved rag mX? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
