When the Baltimore Examiner, America's newest daily newspaper, hits 250,000 stoops and driveways here today, it will boast a bigger circulation than the 169-year-old Baltimore Sun.
Of course, no one is sure what that quarter-million papers will really mean to advertisers because they will be delivered unsolicited and at no charge.
But as newspapers struggle to woo advertisers and keep readers in the Internet age, the Examiner stands out as arguably the boldest experiment yet in America's deepening flirtation with free daily newspapers.
The Examiner is the brainchild of billionaire Philip Anschutz, co-founder of Qwest Communications International Inc., a once-highflying telecom company that stumbled badly during the tech slump. Amid growing skepticism about newspapers' prospects, Mr. Anschutz, who declined to be interviewed, has become more involved in publishing. Two years ago he bought the 141-year-old San Francisco Examiner for $20 million. Then he bought a small group of suburban papers near Washington and effectively rebranded them as the Washington Examiner. Clarity has trademarked the Examiner name in more than 60 cities.
[Source: Joseph T. Hallinan, The Wall Street Journal, via Gene Parry, SPJ Press Notes]
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