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.

Washington Post to start free daily

The Washington Post announced today that it is entering the free daily business. It's entry is titled "Express" and it will appear later this summer (date to be announced) at train stations, college campuses and downtown locations with heavy traffic. The goal is two fold -- stop other free dailies from entering the market and capture the time and attention of younger readers who don't pick up the paid broadsheet post. Here's a press release.

Christopher Ma, a Post Company vice president and former executive editor of washingtonpost.com, will be the new paper's publisher; the general manager will be Arnold Applebaum, formerly director of recruitment advertising at The Post. Express will be edited by Daniel Caccavaro, formerly editor-in-chief of Boston Metro, a free commuter newspaper launched in Boston in 2001.

Examiner publsher called "corporate vulture"

You don't want to give stories in "alt-weeklies" too much credence. I remember how an alt-weekly in Denver, "Westword," seemed to twist every quote it got in order to punish those it disliked. So, with that caveat, I link to a story in the OC Weekly by Nathan Callahan about Phil Anschutz, who bought the San Francisco Examiner, a free daily. This blog is about free dailies. And I have been trying to figure out why Anschutz, a billionaire with fortunes in the railroad, telephone and oil industries, wanted to buy a second-rate paper in San Francisco. Frankly, it fascinates me. Here's a link to the entire article and here are a few paragraphs I found eye-opening:

An evangelical Presbyterian, Anschutz got his start using his Daddy’s Kansas-based oil-and-gas business as a pipeline to riches in railroads and later as a conduit to profits in the telecommunications industry. That’s where the devoutly postured Anschutz made Enron-style headlines as the owner of Qwest Communications. ...

If the Anschutz Foundation is any indication, your Star of Hope donation could go to the spectacularly anti-gay Colorado for Family Values (CFV). This Anschutz-funded group’s goal is to halt "the militant gay agenda." Your donation could help spread the CFV doctrine that "pedophilia is a basic part of the homosexual lifestyle" or that "homosexuals freely admit among themselves the importance of child abuse."

Another beneficiary of the Anschutz Foundation, the Institute for American Values, campaigns against single parenting; still another, Enough is Enough, promotes Internet censorship. ...

Anschutz is no newcomer to nurturing ecclesiastic loonies.

In 1988, he created the Marian Pfister Anschutz Award in honor of his mother. One of the first recipients was James Dobson, author, radio commentator and founder of Focus on the Family. Described by one reporter as a "professional Christian," Dobson is best known for his work on President Ronald Reagan’s Commission on Pornography. There, Dobson testified that his family was chased around town by a black Porsche with Satan behind the wheel—presumably to reward Dobson for working for Reagan.

I’m not kidding you. Anschutz actually gave an award named after his mother to this pious freak. There’s more. In his book Children at Risk, Dobson writes that pornography can lead to "sex between women and bulls, stallions or boars" and eventually to serial killings. According to Dobson, Ted Bundy’s vicious sex-murder spree was inspired by "the accidental discovery of girlie magazines at a roadside dump."

Why is Anschutz in the newspaper business? My fear is that he will produce such a despicable product that free dailies will forever be discredited by his proclivities.

Major California daily goes free

The San Francisco Examiner, once the mighty flagship of the Hearst newspaper chain, is going through hard times after it was sold by Hearst when the company bought the city's other paper, the Chronicle. Yesterday the Examiner laid off most of its editorial staff Friday and announced it would become a free daily paper available only in city news racks and retail stores, starting Monday. The Examiner will go from a broadsheet to tabloid. The rival Chron reports that 40 staff members in the Examiner circulation department and newsroom were let go, leaving just two reporters, three editors and two columnists. The newspaper will now share more content with the Independent, which is owned by the same family as the Examiner.

Commentary: It seems the Examiner has become a free daily as a last resort in order to survive. If the Examiner fails, readers and advertisers will say, "See, free dailies don't work." The truth may be that the Examiner is circling the drain because of its own problems. The current owners have injected political bias into its news columns and readers have rejected the paper. Nothing can help it now, not even dramatically cutting its costs. This is a black eye for the rest of the free daily industry, which is growing and successful. The Examiner is an albatross to other free dailies.

Growth of free dailies charted by academic

Here's a link to a paper by Amsterdam University's Piet Bakker that charts the growth of free daily newspapers. The paper heavily focuses on Europe and ignores early free dailies in the U.S. dating back to the 1970s. While talking about the Metro International chain (which still isn't profitable after seven years in business), he ignores the profitable free dailies in places like Palo Alto, Calif., Aspen, Colo., and Conway, N.H., to name just a few. But his conclusion is one we can all take to the bank -- "Because free dailies have also proven to be attractive to a younger audience, the future looks relatively bright."

More details about Berkeley paper's closure

While most free dailies are enjoying growth and success, the Berkeley (California) Daily Planet is a notable exception. It closed yesterday after 3 1/2 years in business. Started in 1997 by three Stanford business school graduates and two journalists, it attempted to survive by offering low cost advertising like other free dailies. A story in the San Francisco Chronicle today quotes the editor of the Planet as expressing disappointment over the closure considering that he had made a number of changes in the past few months to improve news coverage. Apparently it was too little, too late. The paper had three editors and three reporters, 10 regular contributors, a handful of interns and a tiny business staff. Circulation varied, and Alexander estimated it in the 15,000-20,000 range just before it closed. The Planet's owners started a paper in San Mateo, California, about 15 miles away, and claim that it is doing well.

Berkeley (California) 'Daily Planet' folds

A free daily serving Berkeley, California, closed today after printing its last issue. The University of California Daily Cal newspaper reports that the Planet's employees learned about the closure when arrived at work today and found a note on the door. The Los Angeles Times reported in January that the Planet had failed to turn a profit since its 1999 inception. "This year there had been a continued decline in pages, and the number of pages is the number of ads," said Judith Scherr, who had been a reporter at the paper for about 18 months.

Chicago Trib's RedEye should be a free daily

When you read this press release about the Chicago Tribune's new RedEye daily, you might be asking yourself why it costs 25 cents.

With its tightly-edited mix of topical news and features coupled with its daily frequency, the RedEye edition stands out from other publications targeting young adults.

"If readers give us 20 minutes, we'll make the most of their time," said Jane Hirt, RedEye co-editor. "We'll plug them in each day on everything from the top news stories to the hottest celebrity gossip, and not always in that order.""

Obviously RedEye is aimed at the 18- to 34-year-old demographic — readers who have eschewed paid broadsheets and any other paid content. They feel they shouldn't have to pay for news. If the Tribune Company, owner of the Chicago Tribune, made RedEye free and distributed it at the same locations as the rival Sun-Times, guess what would happen? The Sun-Times would be out of business in a few years.

New free daily in Los Gatos, California

The Palo Alto (Calif.) Daily News has launched another paper in Los Gatos, Calif., a city of about 20,000 west of San Jose, Calif., in the middle of Silicon Valley. Los Gatos had a daily years ago that was acquired by the San Jose Mercury News, the region's dominant newspaper. It will be interesting to see if the Palo Alto formula of small-town news will work in a sophisticated, cutting-edge tech hub.

Free daily launches in Denver

Denver, Colo. now has a free daily. The Denver Daily News hit the streets yesterday (May 10). The owners are Mike Kirshbaum, Jim Pavelich and Dave Pierce. Kirschbaum was formerly head of the Summit County Daily in Breckenridge, and it is the operating partner in this paper. Pavelich started the Vail Daily and Pierce the Aspen Times. Pavelich and Pierce are now putting out the Palo Alto (Calif.) Daily News. The first edition of the "Denver Daily" was 8 pages, but the optimistic staff hopes it will grow. Denver has two other dailies, the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post, which have become "regional" papers, ignoring a city that can be interesting at times.

Boston Metro overcomes obstacles

The free Boston Metro, which launched only last week, prevailed in a fight over whether it can distribute at subway stations. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority started confiscating news racks for the new paper even before it began publishing. Publisher Russel Pergament told Editor & Publisher that all he wanted was to have Metro treated like Boston's other dailies, The Globe and the Herald. Transit authorities used some of the excuses free daily publishers are used to hearing from government officials -- like the one about how a free daily creates litter problems. Pergament also complained that his hawkers, who tend to be Hispanic and black, were singled out by transit agency inspectors. He called that racial discrimination. Now the transit agency is backing off and letting Metro distribute side by side with the big papers. What's more, the Globe has reduced its price from 50 cents to 25 cents near transit stations.

Metro launches edition in Boston

Metro International, the chain from Sweden with some 18 papers worldwide, launched an edition in Boston today with a planned circulation of 170,000. The publisher is Russell Pergament and the editor is Dan Caccavaro who come from a string of successful weeklies covering Boston's suburbs. Boston Metro will be part of a chain that includes editions in Toronto and Philadelphia, primarily at attracting morning commuters, especially those who ride subways. As with most papers in the Metro International model, the Boston paper will be pitched to the 18-to-35 year-old market with strong local sports, national and international news summaries, local columnists and local reporting.

No, the Swedes didn't invent the free daily

The paper by University of Amsterdam Prof. Piet Bakker that we cited below has one glaring error in it. As a few readers of this blog have told us, the Swedish chain called Metro did not invent the free daily newspaper in 1995, contrary to Bakker's assertion. Metro makes the same claim as well. Truth is that free dailies have been going strong in the United States since the 1970s. And there's evidence that they existed here before that.

The first free daily in the U.S. started in the early 1960s in Walnut Creek, southeast of San Francisco. A local businessman, Dean Lesher, began what is now known as the Contra Costa Times. His paper was a broadsheet, while most free dailies are tabloid sized. But he began it as a free paper to attract readers. By the late 1960s, the Contra Costa Times was converted to paid circulation.

A few years later, regents at the University of Colorado pulled the plug on the student-run Colorado Daily because of its editorials against the Vietnam War. The staff of the paper regrouped, found an office about a block away from campus and continued to publish as independent paper owned by a non-profit the staff established. In order to attract advertisers, they focused on both campus and non-campus news. The format was a success for several years.

Other University of Colorado students, once they graduated, started free dailies in various Colorado mountain towns including Aspen, Vail and Breckenridge in the 1970s and 80s.

In 1995 — the same year Metro claimed to have invented the free daily — veteran newsmen behind the Vail Daily (Jim Pavelich), Aspen Times (Dave Price) and Aspen Daily News (Dave Danforth) teamed up to start the Palo Alto Daily News in a suburb south of San Francisco. The Palo Alto paper has become a wild success, spawning sister papers and copycats.

It may be that the Amsterdam professor hasn't spent much time researching the U.S. newspaper market. What he finds here might open his eyes about how free dailies got started.

Oldest free daily in U.S. sold

In Boulder, Colorado, a liberal university town on the edge of the Rockies, former hippies from the 60s rule. They dominate politics, the law, business, academics and the media. So if somebody buys a local media outlet with the odd idea of making a profit ... they're under attack from Day One. So it goes for Randy Miller (right). Sure, the former Detroit Free Press deputy managing editor and former Lee Newspapers executive is a progressive (what liberals call themselves these days). But he's not far enough left for Westword, an alt-weekly from Denver which makes a good share of its profits from porno ads. Westword crucifies Miller in this piece. But if Miller hadn't bought the Colorado Daily, it probably would have gone out of business ... a little fact lost on the folks at Westword.

The Colorado Daily began in the last century as the student newspaper of the University of Colorado. In 1970, it was kicked off campus by the university's regents who disagreed with its editors' strenuous views on the Vietnam war. The editors of the paper regrouped and rented an office a block off campus above a bar known as The Sink. The Sink was located in a part of Boulder known as "The Hill" where protesters and police mixed it up in violent confrontations. (At the time, I was a newsman at Denver's KOA-TV (now KCNC-TV), and covered many violent anti-war protests in Boulder.) The Daily found itself in a sink-or-swim situation -- either sell ads or close. So, in order to attract a broader array of advertisers than just those catering to students, the Daily began covering the entire city of Boulder, a community of about 50,000 people or so. Boulder's perennial paid paper, the Daily Camera, snoozed as the Colorado Daily became a potent force in terms of both advertising and news coverage. The Daily thrived in the 1970s and early 80s, and students went on after graduation to start their own free dailies in Vail, Aspen, Telluride, Summit County and other Colorado destinations. But back in Boulder, management turnovers and embezzlement by an employee landed the Daily flat on its back.

Enter Randy Miller. When he made minor changes, such as limiting the length of editorials or banning the jumping of stories from page to page, employees balked. Employees erroneously took some of Miller's actions as clues he was trying to kiss up to university officials or taking a more pro-business stance (something you can't do in Boulder!). Despite the gripes from the professional complainers, Miller isn't going anywhere. And the nation's oldest free daily is still in business. And it's still left wing, er, progressive.

By the way, the photo of Randy Miller was shot by Susan Goldstein and we found it in Westword.

Academic studies free daily business models

An academic paper has been published by a University of Amsterdam professor that analyzes the free daily industry. Here is a link. Prof. Piet Bakker says the success of free papers is the result of their efficient cost structure and their ability to reach a new and relatively young audience. He says there are basically two types -- those launched by entrepreneurs entering a new market and those launched defensively by existing paid papers with the intent of keeping newcomers out.

The new free daily nobody is talking about

One of the most exciting free dailies in the U.S. is in Nashville. The City Paper (that's it's name) launched last November with 17 full-time news staffers and a daily circulation of 40,000. It is taking on Nashville's big daily, The Tennessean, with a daily circulation of 186,793 and 260,733 on Sundays. The Tennessean, owned by Gannett, has not faced daily competition since the Nashville Banner closed on Feb. 20, 1998 with a circulation of 40,633.

The City Paper is being financed by a local computer software entrepreneur, Brian Brown, who has no previous newspaper experience. However, every member of his newsroom staff has worked at other dailies, many at The Tennessean.

Nationally, there's been no coverage that I can find of the launch of The City Paper. I found a few local stories in Nashville (which form the basis of this posting), but the media that has written so much about Metro International's launches in North America has ignored The City Paper.

While The Tennessean sees itself as a regional paper, and it carries a lot of national news as well, The City Paper is much more local. "News as it hits your neighborhood, not as it hits the City Council agenda. We're trying to carve our own niche," Catherine Mayhew, City Paper executive editor, told the trade publication Brandweek. Brandweek is one of the few places where I found any information about The City Paper. The quote above is from its February 5 issue.

PBS' report on free daily newspapers

This link is to the script of the "News Hour with Jim Lehrer" report on the rise of free daily newspapers. Terence Smith and his crew produced an accurate report, perhaps the first for broadcast journalists, on what makes free dailies tick. Since then, however, the free dailies in New York operated by the Post and NY Daily News have closed, and two new free dailies have taken their place -- Metro and AM New York. Also in this story is Dave Price, then editor and publisher of the Palo Alto Daily News, which has since been acquired for an undisclosed sum by Knight Ridder -- probably because it was making life difficult for the struggling San Jose Mercury News. Price was also the founding editor of the Aspen Times Daily, one of the world's first free dailies. Ted Fang, publisher of the San Francisco Examiner, is long gone. The Examiner was purchased by billionaire Phillip Anschutz, who has been pouring millions into it, but hasn't made a profit -- at least not yet.

Welcome to my 'blog' about free dailies

While traditional newspapers are suffering from declining circulation, there is a bright spot in the newspaper industry -- free daily newspapers. I've spotted several of them over the years across the country, and have decided to chronicle their growth with this Web log (or blog).

My name is Clyde Davis, and I have toiled in broadcasting in Oklahoma and Colorado. In print, I sold advertising in New Mexico and Texas. My last stop before retirement was at the Houston Post.

Now I'm retired, I paint, walk 2 miles a day and enjoy several newspapers. I want them to survive. But they won't unless they change how they do business. And that's what excites me about free dailies. I was infuriated when the Post closed because, had it been managed differently, it could have survived. There were certainly enough advertisers and readers in the Houston metro area to support both papers.

My purpose in this Web log is to inform like-minded people about the progress of free dailies. I wish to report what happens to them, good or bad. For the record, I have no ties to any of them whatsoever. I don't even own stock in any newspaper companies. I am an interested observer -- with a point of view.