rfmcdonald | [BRIEF NOTE] On T.O. Night (Reply)

This news story caught my attention, not least because of the involvement of blogTO in providing content.

Commuters in central Toronto will soon be able to flip through a new free newspaper as they travel in the evening.

Around 100,000 copies of T.O. Night will be distributed to commuters between 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. at locations around the downtown business core starting Tuesday.

While existing free dailies like 24 and Metro are aimed at morning rush hour commuters, T.O. Night will target evening commuters by updating the daily news.

"We wouldn't dare launch another paper in the morning — there are already six out there," said John Cameron, publisher of the newspaper. "The market is already oversaturated, in my opinion," he told CBC News.

The newspaper, published on magazine-style glossy paper, will rely mostly on wire stories, but will also partner with a local blog, BlogTO, to boost local coverage. It will also feature the odd guest columnist — like John Tory, the former leader of the provincial Conservatives, said Cameron.

Cameron said advertisers are already responding.

"We are [the] last touch point that advertisers get before consumers go home — readers are sitting on a train on the way home. They want to be entertained," said Cameron. "And there's ... nothing there to provide that."

blogTO has this to say.

t.o.night, Toronto's new free afternoon daily, launched yesterday. The inaugural issue, 20 pages deep, featured the expected mix of local, national and international news, business, sports, events, gossip, sudoku and, on page 8, three stories contributed by blogTO. Our daily page of local news will be just one of the ways t.o.night is aiming to distinguish itself from competitors Metro and 24 Hours, the latter of which took the opportunity to unveil a new look of its own yesterday.

I'm a bit sad that I missed yesterday's launch--a copy of the premiere issue would have been nice.