By: Staff reports GTA Today Targets Younger Toronto Readers
Torstar Corp. launched Monday GTA Today - a free, weekday
commuter newspaper - in Toronto, Reuters reports.
GTA Today will target young professionals riding city transit,
reportedly an untapped market by Toronto's four daily newspapers:
The Toronto Sun, the National Post, The Globe and
Mail, and the Toronto Star. Torstar owns the Toronto
Star, but has decided to raise the stakes in Toronto's newspaper
war.
'We're in the midst of one dog of a newspaper race and we decided we
wanted to get this paper out,' said Toronto Star Publisher John
Honderich to Reuters. 'We know there's competition out there, we know
that there are other people who are interested but we don't think
anyone has the quality or the distribution that we have.'
The launch of GTA Today beats both Quebecor Inc. and Swedish
Modern Times Group to the punch as they prepare to launch their own
transit newspapers.
Torstar said the newspaper would be completely funded by advertising
revenues and expected it to break even in the third year, adding that
start-up costs were mitigated by the use of Torstar's existing
distribution and printing press operations.
Modern Times Group was the first to introduce the idea of a free, daily
newspaper for distribution on cities' transit systems. The model was
successful in several European cities before Modern Times Group
launched a Metro edition in Philadelphia, its first foray into the
North American market.
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