The New York Times is joining the free-newspaper war.
Starting June 9, The Times will begin sending out its own army of street hawkers every Thursday afternoon to hand out copies of MarketPlace, a full-color, tabloid-sized classified advertising guide spiced up with articles reprinted from the daily paper.
The weekly giveaway will also carry some local retail advertising. MarketPlace will be divided into sections focusing on real estate, jobs, automobiles and nightlife, with editorial to match.
The Times will begin conservatively, distributing just 150,000 copies--about half the circulation of daily freebies amNewYork and Metro. To target homeward-bound commuters, it will hand out MarketPlace at 250 locations in the five boroughs from 3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Younger readers
The move comes as newspapers around the country are launching free dailies to attract younger readers. Theyre also working to shore up their classified sections, which are vulnerable to competition from online sites. The Times in particular has struggled in this area: Classified advertising volume was down 2% in 2004 for The New York Times Co.s News Media Group, which is dominated by The Times and The Boston Globe.
Advertisers will be offered the chance to add MarketPlace to the schedules theyre running in the daily paper. Some ads will be exclusive to the weekly.
There is no product like this in the New York market, and we feel it will leverage our wonderful strength with classified advertising, says Jyll Holzman, senior vice president of advertising at The Times.
The new paper could allow The Times to increase linage in some of its most profitable areas, including help wanted and automotive. But the papers recent focus on becoming a national publication may hamper its efforts to win over local retailers.
Local drawback
Retail accounts need high penetration, and The Times New York circulation numbers are not that great, says Gary Mathew, director of print marketing at JL Media.
Executives at The Times are hoping to change that. One of the goals of MarketPlace is to attract readers who dont normally pick up the flagship paper.
This is somewhat different
