By Catherine Cuellar, KERA 90.1 reporter
Dallas, TX – Catherine Cuellar, KERA 90.1 reporter: On Wednesday, Dallas readers can pick up A.M. Journal Express in high-traffic spots like coffee shops and office buildings. Jeremy Halbreich, founder and CEO of the five-year-old American Consolidated Media, says the free paper is designed to appeal to young and busy news consumers.
Jeremy Halbreich, founder and CEO, American Consolidated Media: Something that is short, quick. Simple stories that they can read in 10 or 15 minutes, give or take. That gives them a good thorough grounding of the day.
Cuellar: Since the launch of A.M. Daily Express was announced last week, Halbreich's former employer of 24 years, the Dallas Morning News, has secretly planned a response, according to the industry journal Editor and Publisher. "D Magazine dot com" reports a comparable Belo-published paper called Quick will launch Monday. Yesterday those plans were neither confirmed nor denied by Morning News publisher and CEO Jim Maroney.
Jim Maroney, publisher and chief executive officer, The Dallas Morning News: We have done the work we needed to do to make the decision about what we're going to do and we'll have a press release that isn't yet finalized to be frank with you, and when that press release is finalized and will come out is again somewhat fluid at this point in time.
Cuellar: Halbreich is excited by the possibility of competition.
Halbreich: To see an organization like the Morning News, as quickly as they seem to be reacting to be coming out with sort of a "me too" product, we think that lends us great validity and just instant credibility that would probably otherwise take us a good long period on our own to establish out in the marketplace.
Cuellar: The concept has already gained currency in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., which now have a so-called commuter paper in addition to a major metropolitan daily. Rem Rieder is editor and senior vice president for American Journalism Review.
Rem Rieder, Editor and Senior Vice President, American Journalism Review: I don't think anybody has reached the formula though of figuring out how to attract young people to newspapers, how to get them into the habit. But I think one thing that's clear is that there hasn't been enough real thought about, deep thought anyway, about what it takes to attract young readers, about including content in the daily paper that will appeal to them. I'm not sure these quick fix news-light solutions are the answer.
Cuellar: Maroney says the Morning News successfully test-marketed a free news daily in September of last year, but prioritized other new products. A Collin County edition of the Dallas Morning News launched in April, and a Spanish daily, Al Dia, began in September.
Maroney: When we go into these businesses, we go into 'em for the long term. I'm not, nor is the company slightly interested in starting something that we're not planning to be in 10 years from now. So we know there's a market out there for it, and we're going to go create the best product we can to meet both the consumer and advertisers needs and we'll be, if we decide to do this, we'll be doing it 10 years from now.
Cuellar: But in 1996, when the Arlington Morning News went head-to-head with the Arlington Star-Telegram, it was ultimately folded into the Dallas Morning News rather than continuing as a freestanding paper. Whether or not Dallas can support three dailies remains to be seen. Again, Jeremy Halbreich:
Halbreich: If we're going to be distributing right at 150,000 each day Monday through Friday, if someone like the Morning News comes and matches that distribution, and so let's assume they distribute 150,000 each day. You combine the two and that's 300,000 copies distributed in this market. That becomes very, very close to, in the Dallas area proper, the Morning News' current paid circulation - both home delivery and single copy.
Cuellar: Based on performance in other cities, the A.M. Journal Express won't erode the Morning News' lock on loyal readers who want editorials, obituaries, and comics, but Halbreich thinks it will at least challenge the company he helped build to keep pace. For KERA 90.1, I'm Catherine Cuellar.
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