'N.Y. Times' Looking to Open More Local Fronts as 'WSJ' Launches 'Greater New York'

By: Mark Fitzgerald The Wall Street Journal launched its much-anticipated local edition in The New York Times' home turf under the name "Greater New York" Monday.

Greater New York will appear six days a week in print copies circulated in the New York City metropolitan area including parts of Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut.

But the local newspaper war that the Journal has touched off with the Times may soon expand to other markets. In an interview with the Financial Times published Monday, New York Times Co. Media President Scott Heekin-Canedy said the national newspaper is talking with local papers about providing local content in as many as 15 markets around the country. "We're in active discussions for five markets now," Heekin-Canedy said.

The Times has arrangements with the Chicago News Cooperative and freelancers in San Francisco to provide local content for dedicated pages in the Times. The performance in those cities has exceeded expectations," Heekin-Canedy told the FT.

In New York, the Journal edition is close to a full-service local paper including two pages of sports news, a humor column, a society and gossip column and heavy coverage of New York's favorite spectator sport: the state of commercial and residential real estate.

Online, the Journal and Foursquare, the location-based social media network, have created Wall Street Journal badges and tips from the new edition's content.

Greater New York launch advertisers include retailers who are not normally Journal ad buyers including Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdale's department stores.

Times executives in a conference call with analysts last week said the Journal is heavily discounting it ads. Some local businesses have been offered a full-page ad for $19,000 -- well below the rate card for a page, which can go as high as $90,000, according to a Reuters report by Jennifer Saba. Some advertisers have also been offered free space in the sibling New York Post, Reuters reported.