Tonight newspaper has cracked the holy grail of distribution deals for free Toronto publications—the biweekly paper is now available inside Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) subway stations.
As of this week, the evening newspaper is now available on Gateway Newstands racks at downtown TTC subway stations on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
It’s a deal that tonight publisher and co-founder John Cameron told Marketing has been a goal since the paper started roughly four years ago. “In the past we’ve been known as the free paper of the GO [Ontario’s inter-regional transit system], now this will allow us to expand on our downtown demographic,” he said.
Roughly one-third of tonight’s readers are TTC commuters, and while Cameron wouldn’t speculate on how specifically this deal with Torstar Direct Services Racks at Gateway Newstands will impact distribution numbers, he said he expects a “solid increase” in readership. Tonight currently has 184,000 readers on Tuesday and Thursday night.
Tonight was previously available in pockets on four-foot by six-foot billboards in downtown Toronto’s Path underground walkway, “but that’s still not the same as getting into the TTC,” said Cameron.
“It’s a very lucrative space to be in and there’s quite a process in order to be allowed in,” said Cameron. The paper wasn’t permitted to distribute inside the stations originally because it was a daily at the time, and as Cameron said, “Metro has exclusivity on free dailies” within TTC stations.
So, in January, when tonight reduced its frequency to two times a week it was no longer infringing on Metro’s deal. “As soon as we decided to make that move to twice a week we knew that the opportunity was now open to us,” said Cameron. (The paper technically switched from a daily to a weekly format when it was acquired by Annex Business Media, but that frequency only lasted for two weeks since Cameron said advertiser demand was better in line with a twice-a-week frequency.)
“It feels like after four years, if you keep fighting and being creative you find a way to make it work,” he added.
Billboards about tonight’s expanded distribution are currently up in the Path and will run for eight weeks.
