Toronto Gets a New Free Daily as t.o.night Readies for September Launch
A new free daily called t.o.night will be launching on September 8th marking a milestone for the city as Toronto's first afternoon paper since the folding of the Toronto Telegram in 1971. Unlike competitors 24 Hours and Metro, the commuter-targeted t.o.night will be filled with news, stories and sports scores that afternoon subway riders won't find in the boxes crowding busy downtown intersections. And - not to be overlooked - the new daily will also come complete with a full page of local content created by blogTO.
Not since the rise and fall of Dose has a publication surfaced in the city threatening to shake up the print media landscape. While backed by some investors with print industry ties, t.o.night is an independent media company and come August will be based out of a small office space in Leslieville upstairs from the Curzon bar.
I first met with the team behind t.o.night earlier this year when they approached blogTO and asked to partner with us to help beef up their daily local content - a section based on my conversations with them that promises to be far more interesting, original and comprehensive than the competition who in the last year have all cut staff and resources devoted to covering local news and culture.
As far as local content, t.o.night will put more emphasis on event information, restaurant reviews and other happenings that will allow readers to plan their evenings as they look to unwind after a long day at the office.
This new daily will be published 5 times a week with an initial circulation of 100,000 copies a day; all distributed between 3:30 and 6:30pm near subway stops and other transit touch-points in the downtown core.
Comments (27)
Just to clear up a misleading statement.
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. . . Toronto's first afternoon paper since the folding of the Toronto Telegram in 1971. . . . .
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The Toronto Star was also an afternoon paper in the
early 1970s. It migrated to an all day paper in the
1980s.
The first edition of the Star would hit the streets
around 11 am.
Now this is like, you've already looked at 24hrs and Metro and now in the morning commute, on the way to catch your evening GOtrain you have something new to read...
Great, more useless, ad-driven trash littering subway stations and trains. I hope it goes under ASAP. In an era of web-enabled iPhones and Blackberries, this publication is utterly superfluous.
Yes, because EVERYONE has an iPhone or Blackberry. It's also difficult to get service underground.
Not everyone uses PDAs. Not everyone likes paying the ridiculous data fees. And I don't know anyone who can get service in the subway lines.
Print and digital media are still very different and still serve very different purposes.
Someone pulls out their pda (assuming they're not on their cellphone) to look for very specific information. What time Harry Potter is showing and at what theatres for example.
Print is really good at introducing people to information they -weren't- looking for.
So when you're trying to promote local events and culture, a daily paper of its sort is hardly trash.
"Someone pulls out their pda (assuming they're not on their cellphone) to look for very specific information. What time Harry Potter is showing and at what theatres for example.
Print is really good at introducing people to information they -weren't- looking for."
Meet any RSS reader on any smartphone platform.
While I sincerely wish this endeavor and the folks behind it the best of luck, I honestly think that especially in a year like this its going to be very difficult to penetrate the market.
Newspapers across the city are struggling, many look likely on the verge of collapse and we already have metro and 24 for dailies and eye and now for the more scene driven content.
SMARTPHONE = Another way to get you to pay a monthly fee for content your already paying to get on television, on the internet, in the newspaper.
GEE a free newspaper or pay a monthly fee for a smart phone to read headlines. How's your budget doing?
IN AN ERA of recession and job losses, we should applaud a venture that's giving it a try and going to give us something for free and not charge us by the month to use it.
This is surprising news in the current market where you hear more about newspapers folding than launching. But I disagree that all media now needs to come in electronic format. A decently written and interesting daily could make for a good read while commuting, including underground where there's no cellphone reception. Before we assume this paper will be nothing more than subway station litter (aka "24 Hours") we should at least give these guys a chance.
True, there is money in news aimed at a vast number of Torontonians who don't speak English as a first language.
Lower income people who don't own gizmos are also an audience for a certain kind of advertising.
Not everything needs to be measured on a hipness scale.
I personally find that when reading something digitally I tend to pick and choose the stories I want to read. With printI'm always more willing to browse other stories and read about things I thought I didn't have interest in initially. I think there is something about having the whole story laid out in front of you for easy reading. Having to click a link, no matter how easy it is, seems to create a barrier between you and the story.
Except you can't carry your television or computer around with you. Papers are static content, hardly worth comparing to a handheld.
I'm comparing the fact that its the same content in a different format. Does carrying it around make it any better. You can carry a free newspaper around or pay a monthly fee to carry a handheld.
Personally I'd rather have the paper newspapers all over the TTC than my paper money all out there to pay for TV, Internet, & hand held.
So long as original content, I'm all for it. If's 90% reprinted AP wire stories (a la the other 'free' (ad-driven) papers in Toronto), I hope it dies quickly.
Yay, more litter with recaps of recaps of recaps of summaries of stories that we read about yesterday on Google news.
Sports scores? NO NO NO. Yes, it's cheap (free) filler, but it's of no use to anyone. You can only report scores from games that ended last night, and fully 100% of people who are interested in those games will know the scores by the time of their evening commute. That information is of no use to anyone, so even though it's superficially attractive because it's free to obtain, just don't do it....
I heard that St. Joseph Media (Toronto Life) are behind this new newspaper. Is that true? It would be awesome if this paper had BlogTO's daily coverage and Toronto Life's restaurant reviews. Best of both worlds. I guess we'll have to see when it comes out.
Please keep your content online only. I don't support free news organizations that strewn our streets with free, advertising-driven, low quality news. It's polluting, wasteful, and stupid. Look on sidewalks and recycling bins after the morning rush hour. Honestly why do you want more of that?
At least now we have those useless city workers back to pick up this extra garbage. I for one look forward to seeing those minions pick up after me.
Here is the thing. I don’t want more repackaging of the same old news feeds. This seems to be what people running newspapers don’t understand. I want weird, quicky, interesting, magazine-style insight into things that I haven’t heard before. This is just another lame attempt to repackage the same old s---.
Another free daily littering the streets and transit? No thank you. Stick to what you do best, BlogTO.
papers are static content, printed the night before.
handhelds have dynamic content in real time.
Papers decide what you read
Handhelds allow me to decide what to read
Papers come from one news source
Handhelds have several news sources, most are not available in print format.
Yea, I can see the comparison. Apples and oranges. Sorry.
I like the idea of keeping print alive because it gives smaller stories a chance but I don't think we need another free daily. I agree with Filip. If you're going to do this, make the pieces insightful and well researched. Talk about things that aren't currently big stories in the news or do your own research about them. Don't just do this because it seems hip and cool, then its not worth it
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