Free Youth Papers Try Different Strategies

By: Jennifer Saba The fiercly competitive publishers in New York's free tabloid market managed to be seen in the same room yesterday without duking it out.

Instead, Russel Pergament, publisher of amNewYork, and Henry Scott, managing director for Metro, New York, quietly waited their turn to speak on a panel about free newspapers and young adults at the International Newspaper Marketing Association (INMA) meeting here. They were joined by Laura Golden, publisher of Belo's Quick of Dallas and Sverre Munck, CEO of 20 Minutes Holdings in Norway.

Whether you're in New York, Dallas or Paris, 18- to 34-year-olds pretty much want the same thing -- fast, easy to digest hard news with relevant entertainment listings. And for the most part, all four speakers exhibited a product that delivered. You could easily interchange the banners on the papers.

There were some minor distinctions though, especially among the New York competitors. AmNewYork's Pergament emphasized that his paper has broken several news stories including one that questioned the finances around the foundation that runs the Statue of Liberty. (The New York Times followed up a day later, crediting amNewYork in a correction.) In his talk, Metro's Scott focused more on packaging and graphics.

Otherwise, for all the youth papers, it is pretty much the same formula cribbed from the magazine world: give away the product, depend on advertising as a revenue base and pray that once readers hit 35, they'll migrate to established dailies (at least in the case of Belo).

Belo's Gordon said that charging for Quick would be fruitless and she suspects that it would see a 50% decline in circ if they made readers pay. Quick's current circ is 150,000 copies, she said. Gordon also noted that if a mainstream paper wants to start a free youth-oriented tab, they better put a lot of resources behind it. For her, that means that Quick relies on its own staff of 12 editors and reporters, nine dedicated salespeople, three circulation employees and one dedicated marketing manager.

It's still too early to tell if free tabs aimed at young adults are the industry's silver bullet. Quick's competitor in the Dallas market, A.M. Journal Express, folded two weeks ago. And for a demographic that is quite taken with the Internet, none of the panel members has a strong Web strategy.