Free Briefing for Dallas planned
On August 27 The Dallas Morning News plans to launch Briefing, a free newspaper aimed at non-subscribers in higher income groups.
The circulation of Briefing, that will be distributed Wednesdays through Saturdays, will be 200,000 copies. Readers will have the opportunity to opt out of delivery.
In 2003 publisher Belo launched Al Día (40,000 copies), targeting the Spanish-speaking population, and free daily Quick (circulation 100,00) for younger readers.
Contrary to almost all free newspapers, Briefing will have the standard broadsheet format mainly to give advertisers the opportunity to place ads in both papers. The paper will count 16 pages.
The free distribution of Al Día will triple because of home delivery of its Wednesday and Saturday editions to about 80,000 households, on top of the 40,000 copies currently distributed through home delivery or street boxes. (Dallas Morning News, E&P)
Although the plan to launch a new free publication is bold in itself, the broadsheet-model seems rather outdated. Replacing ads is of course also possible in a tabloid.
Surprising is the home-delivery model. The Examiner is actually cutting back on this rather expensive way of delivering papers (see previous post). Also the few European papers that use it, have problems with controlling the costs of the model.