At a time when newspapers across the United States are trimming sections and hundreds of pages, the Dallas Morning News is taking a 180-degree turn by rolling out a new print product, says an Editor & Publisher report.
The new offering, titled Briefing, is a free, 16-page broadsheet that will be home delivered to non-subscribers of the Morning News every Wednesday through Saturday. It launches August 27. The plan is to distribute 200,000 copies in the core Dallas market to households with incomes of $75,000 or more by 6 a.m. The target demo is adults 25-49, skewing toward women.
Some details:
"Briefing" will only be one section. While conducting research, Morning News executives found that these elusive readers don’t want an edition any bigger than the Morning News' A section. As a result, the stories will be shorter, and will not jump. The free edition will also extensively use maps to pinpoint where stories are taking place.
Executives decided to go with the broadsheet format instead of a tabloid edition to give advertisers the opportunity to pick up ads from the Morning News and place them in Briefing for an incremental cost, though of course, they expect to attract new advertisers as well. Households that receive Briefing will have the opportunity to opt out of delivery.
Briefing is not like the company’s Quick (distribution: 100,000 copies). “Quick is single-copy,” McKeon noted, whereas Briefing "is home-delivered. Quick is a tabloid, and Briefing is a broadsheet. Quick is a younger product, and the sweet spot for Briefing is 25-49. It does fill out a portfolio of products to serve different readers.”
