Meeting its competition head-on, Quebecor’s Sun Media Corp. has launched a free tabloid newspaper, 24 hours, in Calgary and Edmonton.
Tuesday’s move came just a week after Torstar Corp. and Metro International SA announced the launch of free Metro daily newspapers in Calgary and Edmonton and CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc., which is Canada’s largest newspaper owner, began its own Calgary free commuter daily tabloid.
24 hours “is designed to deliver information quickly for busy readers—typically in 20 minutes—and it will attract additional readers to the print format,” Pierre Karl Peladeau, CEO of Quebecor Inc., which publishes 24 hours newspapers across the country.
Available in street boxes, coffee shops and other easily accessible locations, 24 hours will have an initial press run of 50,000 copies in each city.
In Calgary, the new paper will create 11 full-time-equivalent positions in editorial, advertising and related areas, in addition to drawing on staff support from Quebecor’s Calgary Sun.
“With the addition of readers in Calgary, the 24 hours and 24 heures network of free dailies across Canada reaches a total of more than 900,000 readers,” said Peladeau.
The 24 hours newspapers are also published Monday to Friday in Montreal, Ottawa—English and French editions—Toronto and Vancouver.
