"Commuter papers have been shown to be read by huge numbers of professionals and attract lucrative advertising, while paid dailies face limited growth prospects and have all but lost the ability to charge a premium for home delivery," says a new report from the International Newspaper Marketing Association, according to Editor & Publisher (paraphrasing from the report). E&P also talks to a consultant who says he's "been told of (free commuter dailies) being planned in three cities."
So says Chicago Reader Publisher and COO Jane Levine (pictured), who admits that Tribune Publishing's new youth-oriented daily tabloid has made it more difficult to reach Tribune clients who don't advertise in the Reader. "It's just easier for them and way cheaper" to add RedEye to their Tribune media spend, Levine tells Media Daily News. "These papers are going after, and I don't think very successfully, an age," Levine says. "They want 18 to 34, period, young for young's sake. What the reader of our paper is and always has been is more of psychographic and a lifestyle."
The new tabloid, amNewYork, will target young urban commuters and will be launched early in the fourth quarter, according to Newsday. Distribution will begin in Manhattan and then spread to the other boroughs, with papers given away at subway stations and bus stops as well as health clubs, bars, restaurants and bookstores. Tribune Publishing, which owns the youth-oriented daily Red Eye in Chicago, will partner in New York with newspaper executive Russel Pergament, who developed the original idea for amNewYork.
Steve May, who sold the Times of Acadiana to Thomson in 1996, tells Gambit Weekly it was subsequent acquirer Gannett that brought him out of retirement. May says he started his new paper, The Independent, because Gannett is "on the verge of owning Louisiana. They are two markets away from total ownership concentration." Ted Power, who serves as publisher of both the Times of Acadiana and Gannett's local daily, The Advertiser, admits the weekly has declined in quality since Gannett's acquisition. "The Times has been neglected," he says, promising to revamp the paper, moving it further away from its alternative-weekly roots
In a desperate bid to attract young readers "who have been deserting daily newspapers in droves and driving news executives to distraction," mainstream media companies "are churning out ... easy-to- read publications that are light on serious journalism, heavy on the partying scene, and, for the most part, free," reports Mark Jurkowitz. "I think it's a silly strategy because it's all about what they're putting out in daily papers that's driving [young] readers away,'' Nashville Scene's Albie Del Favero tells Jurkowitz. ''Daily newspapers in general write in a style that is not at all appealing to young readers.''
When the free weekday tabloid Express debuted Monday morning, the City Paper and its band of merry pranksters were prepared, hawking 10,000 copies of its own Expresso at subway stops across the nation's capital. The City Paper parodists, led by Webmeister Dave Nuttycombe, "anticipated the journalistic emptiness of Express," according to Slate's Jack Shafer, who says the Post's new lite version "ladles the news out with an eyedropper into tiny text boxes and then flattens it with a steamroller." Also revealed: The editor of Express is none other than Dan Caccavaro, former editor of AAN-member Valley Advocate.
The Courier-Journal’s new tabloid will target 25- to 34-year-olds and will focus on lifestyle and entertainment news, according to an internal memo intercepted by LEO's Tom Peterson. The as-yet-unnamed paper will launch as early as November with shared C-J personnel but ultimately will have its own staff, according to the memo. Boise Weekly Publisher Bingo Barnes tells Peterson that the free weekly published by Gannett's Idaho Statesmen doesn't compete fairly: “They’ve given some advertisers free ads for a year. And we’ve lost some ads as a result. Their goal is total market dominance."
"Before the Express can work as an advertising vehicle, it must first achieve marginal editorial success," Slate's Jack Shafer says about Washington Post Co.'s "latest strategy to reclaim young AWOL readers." New Times CEO Jim Larkin tells Shafer the Post and other dailies are trying to stem the erosion of their near monopoly that began in the early 60's; San Diego Reader's Howie Rosen suggests the papers have priced themselves out of local markets with their steep advertising rates. Village Voice Media CEO David Schneiderman says the dailies "patronize" young readers, and "then wonder why they don't read their newspapers."
In another daily paper attempt to capture young readers, The Washington Post's Express will be given away to commuters and is designed to be read in 15 minutes. "So The Post is going after the hipster demographic -- what a surprise," Washington City Paper Editor Erik Wemple tells the Post. Express will debut in August.
The alt-weekly contrarian launches a new weekly column this week in City Paper under the header "Right Field." Smith will also continue writing his "Mugger" column for New York Press, which he sold late last year. But he and his family left Manhattan to return to Charm City, where he co-founded the City Paper (it was originally called City Squeeze) in 1977 and sold it a decade later.
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