Washington Post Launches Free Tab

Hoping to reach well-heeled commuters whose busy schedules prevent them from reading newspapers frequently, The Washington Post Company has announced the launch of Express, a free tabloid-sized newspaper.

Set to debut later in the summer, Express will be handed out weekday mornings near DC-area Metro stations, college campuses and other locales with a high concentration of commuter traffic. Issues will run between 20 and 24 pages, with the publishers anticipating a 50-50 ad/editorial split. The editorial mix will include national, international and local news.

Chris Ma, a Washington Post Company vice president who will serve as the publisher of Express, believes the new title will fill both information and marketing voids in the marketplace. "We expect Express to be particularly popular among public transit commuters, especially those who are infrequent newspaper readers," he says. "The Post is an extraordinarily well-read newspaper. Even so, there are a lot of working people in Washington who - by virtue of lifestyle or time limitations - are constantly on the move and read newspapers less frequently than they might."

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And while Ma promises that Express "will work on its own terms," he acknowledges its potential value in terms of cross-promoting other Washington Post Company properties. "We can use it to make people more aware of content in our company core publications that, if they're less frequent readers, they might not be aware of," he notes. For example, Express might run a short news item, then point readers towards a more extensive analysis piece in the Washington Post or to an online chat with its writer.

As for advertising, Express will run both national and local ads, including classifieds. Not surprisingly, Ma is targeting the demographic sweet spot of 18- to 34-year-olds who work in and around the city.

"They are very affluent and well-educated," he says. "They go out a lot, they are going to be looking for new jobs and they move more than the general population." Translation: Express will be an ideal venue for advertisers looking to hawk everything from televisions and travel packages to cultural events and condos. While Ma is hesitant to name companies he has approached or ad categories he'd like to emphasize, he says that the publication is well on its way to exceeding his marketing expectations.

Perhaps buoyed by the recent success of similar ventures in Boston and Chicago, Ma isn't worried that the continued economic quagmire will imperil Express' debut. "It's still a challenging advertising environment for established publications," he says. "But we're confident that this is a good time to be looking at new opportunities."

As for long-term goals, Ma is similarly ambitious. "We'd like for Express to become a daily reading habit for Washington public transit commuters," he says. "We think that it will win wide acceptance and be viewed as augmenting the information interests and needs of a large segment of the Washington audience."

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