Toronto Star to launch free dowloadable mini-paper in September
The Toronto Star is going to produce a daily afternoon mini-paper available as a dowloadable pdf, following the lead of several European papers, including the Guardian's G24 and the Financial Times. This, according to a story in Media Post. The 8- to 12-page publication will be available at 3:30 every afternoon and can be printed, in colour if available, on standard 81/2 x 11 paper. The launch is scheduled for September 5.
It will contain what you might expect, including top stories, lifestyle material and diversions such as puzzles. Michael Babad, the Star's deputy managing editor, says the goal is "to feed various and sundry reader desires". The paper will also carry banner advertising from five major advertisers who have agreed to support it.
Whether the paper will prove popular among commuters and what impact that may have on casual purchases of magazine single copies remains to be seen. This may seem like one of those crashingly obvious, but ultimately wrong, answers to the question of what will reach readers. Since it doesn't require subscription to the daily (unlike, say, the Financial Times), it may not necessarily be of much help in stemming the erosion of traditional sales.
But, as Star spokesperson Heather Armstrong says, "breaking news is posted to the Internet, and the print newspaper is much more about explaining the context and background of events, answering the question of why things are happening." The newspaper hopes to reinvent itself as a "multi-product platform that services customers with news when they want it, in the ways they want it."
Already, The Star, and more than a dozen other Canadian titles, are available as digital pages suitable for PCs and tablets from PressDisplay. This is a pay service (with a fee ranging from US$9.95 to US$29.95 a month) and gives access to more than 300 newspapers from around the world.
The proliferation of such services, free and paid, raises interesting competitive questions for magazines, for their websites and for their advertising strategy, regardless of whether they are retailing breaking news.
It will contain what you might expect, including top stories, lifestyle material and diversions such as puzzles. Michael Babad, the Star's deputy managing editor, says the goal is "to feed various and sundry reader desires". The paper will also carry banner advertising from five major advertisers who have agreed to support it.
Whether the paper will prove popular among commuters and what impact that may have on casual purchases of magazine single copies remains to be seen. This may seem like one of those crashingly obvious, but ultimately wrong, answers to the question of what will reach readers. Since it doesn't require subscription to the daily (unlike, say, the Financial Times), it may not necessarily be of much help in stemming the erosion of traditional sales.
But, as Star spokesperson Heather Armstrong says, "breaking news is posted to the Internet, and the print newspaper is much more about explaining the context and background of events, answering the question of why things are happening." The newspaper hopes to reinvent itself as a "multi-product platform that services customers with news when they want it, in the ways they want it."
Already, The Star, and more than a dozen other Canadian titles, are available as digital pages suitable for PCs and tablets from PressDisplay. This is a pay service (with a fee ranging from US$9.95 to US$29.95 a month) and gives access to more than 300 newspapers from around the world.
The proliferation of such services, free and paid, raises interesting competitive questions for magazines, for their websites and for their advertising strategy, regardless of whether they are retailing breaking news.
posted by D. B. Scott at
9:32 am
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