Free Press returns to full-sized format for Sunday paper
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/03/2011 (5551 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
BROADSHEET’S back, all right!
The Winnipeg Free Press is launching a new weekend product entitled SundayXtra, which will replace On7, effective immediately.
The decision to return to a broadsheet format after a 16-month experiment with a tabloid comes shortly before Metro, a free tabloid, will hit Winnipeg’s streets on April 4. When you include the Winnipeg Sun, the city isn’t big enough for a trio of tabloids, said Bob Cox, publisher of the Free Press.
“We felt it was important that we have a strong identity in the marketplace. It’s a return to our core brand,” he said.
Cox said the Free Press has been trying out a number of new initiatives in the last couple of years, most of them online, in an effort to diversify its revenue sources and not every one is guaranteed to succeed.
“On7 didn’t work for us. You can’t be afraid to fail,” he said.
While the paper is reverting to its traditional format for Sunday, most of On7’s content — heavy on sports, entertainment and breaking news — will remain the same. SundayXtra will only be available through single-copy sales at grocery and convenience stores and in the traditional Free Press blue paper boxes.
It will not be delivered to the doorstep.
“You never say never (to home delivery) but the current market reality is it would be difficult to do. The orange (On7) boxes will disappear from the street,” Cox said.
He noted that a number of Canada’s biggest daily newspapers, including La Presse, the Montreal Gazette and the Vancouver Sun, no longer produce a Sunday paper.
Cox said the Free Press will not compete directly with Metro by producing a free daily tabloid, either.
“Our principal market is people we reach at home. Metro’s principal market is people they reach on their way to work, out of their houses. We don’t have the expertise in doing a free daily; it’s a different genre,” he said.
The launch of SundayXtra comes near the coming launch of The News Cafe, a community hub on McDermot Avenue where people can get something to eat or drink and interact with journalists working there.
“For people who like newspapers, this is a pretty interesting time,” Cox said.
Shares in FP Newspapers Inc. (FP/TSX) closed up a dime Wednesday to $5.94 on volume of 17,276. They hit their 52-week high of $6.88 back in mid-January.
geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca