CALGARY – The tabloid market in Alberta got more crowded today when Torstar Corp. (TSX: TS.B) and Metro International SA announced the launch of free Metro daily newspapers in Calgary and Edmonton, raising the stakes in a battle with CanWest and Sun Media to attract readers in Canada's rapidly growing energy heartland.
The Torstar-Metro announcement comes a day after CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc. (TSX: CWM.UN), which publishes the Calgary Herald newspaper and is Canada's largest newspaper owner, began its own Calgary free commuter daily tabloid.
The latest moves will intensify competition with Sun Media tabloids in Edmonton and Calgary as well as the CanWest-owned Herald and Edmonton Journal. They also raise the question of how many newspapers the two markets can support, even though Calgary and Edmonton and their surrounding areas each have more than one million people and are growing faster than most parts of Canada.
Torstar and Metro said Metro Calgary will begin publishing March 5, followed by Metro Edmonton on April 2, with estimated daily circulation of about 60,000 for each city targeting urban adults between 18 and 49.
"This is ultimately a money making venture but with any newspaper there's significant upfront investment and it's a long-term business plan that we're looking at," Bill McDonald, Metro's group publisher for English Canada, said in an interview.
With Alberta's robust energy-focused economy growing at about four per cent a year, twice the national average, the publications hope to attract new readers in the two fast-growing cities as well as advertising dollars locally and nationally.
"Metro has always had a plan in mind for a national brand extended across as many markets as reasonably possible and Calgary and Edmonton are the fifth and sixth largest markets and the next obvious step for us," explained McDonald.
"All four of our present Metros in Canada are stable and strong and with the robust economic environment in Alberta it is time to move into Calgary and Edmonton," he added.
Metro has newspapers in six Canadian cities, including Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Vancouver. With the addition of Metro Calgary and Metro Edmonton, Metro dailies produce about 747,500 copies each day. The company expects to hire an additional 20 employees as part of the new venture.
