Express lampooned by weekly competitor

The American Press Institute has posted this article on the launch yesterday of the Washington Post's free commuter daily "Express." The picture is of Eric LaPrince, 14, who is hawking copies of the free daily from 6 to 10 a.m. daily. The alt-weekly City Paper, fearful of success by the Express, put out a parody edition titled "Expresso" with the headline "For those who will not read, we salute you!"

"It's tailored to those who don't read which is, I think, the audience the Post is trying to get," said Brooke Linville, a City Paper intern. "It was really funny because the people who [the Express] was geared towards still weren't grabbing the paper. So it was still the older people who had the Washington Post in their hands, were reading it as well."

Express lampooned by weekly competitor

The American Press Institute has posted this article on the launch yesterday of the Washington Post's free commuter daily "Express." The picture is of Eric LaPrince, 14, who is hawking copies of the free daily from 6 to 10 a.m. daily. The alt-weekly City Paper, fearful of success by the Express, put out a parody edition titled "Expresso" with the headline "For those who will not read, we salute you!"

"It's tailored to those who don't read which is, I think, the audience the Post is trying to get," said Brooke Linville, a City Paper intern. "It was really funny because the people who [the Express] was geared towards still weren't grabbing the paper. So it was still the older people who had the Washington Post in their hands, were reading it as well."

Washington Post to launch free daily

The Washington Post Company, obviously worried that Metro International will start an edition in its backyard, today (August 4) launched a free commuter daily called "Express" with a circulation of 125,000. It will be published Monday through Friday and distributed near commuter train stations, on college campuses and in locations with heavy daytime sidewalk traffic. According to the Post:

"A typical edition of Express will be 20 to 24 pages -- designed to be read in 15 to 20 minutes, during the morning commute or breaks in the workday. The publication will feature short news summaries for a broad range of recent developments, from major national and international stories to business and market highlights, and local news and entertainment coverage. Content will be drawn from a variety of news sources and services."

Sounds like the Metro formula to us.