Second Baltimore free daily planned – update
The Baltimore Sun will launch a free daily, called ‘b’ on April 14. The paper is aimed at young readers and will be published on weekdays.
Chicago free daily RedEye, by the Chicago Tribune served as a model for the new paper. Both the Tribune and The Sun are owned by private investor Sam Zell.
The new paper plans to print 50,000 copies and wants to expand to 100,000 a day by the end of the year. (Houston Chronicle)
In Baltimore the free daily Examiner started in April 2006. This paper, however, is aimed at a more general public and is distributed like its sister papers in San Francisco and Washington to households for a major part. The Baltimore Examiner has a circulation of 250,000.
RedEye Chicago, launched in 2002, is now published six days a week and has a circulation of 200,000. Since some years a paper is making a profit.
In Los Angeles, the LA Times has also been thinking about launching a RedEye look-a-like.
[update: Free-daily.com reported last week that this LA RedEye was already launched... as a weekly. The blog has also more news on the Baltimore launch]