Will Canada soon have its own version of USA Today?

That’s the question the media community is asking upon learning that Conrad Black is developing plans to launch a national daily tabloid as early as next spring.

The general feedback from media planners and buyers – when they have time to consider it at all, in this, their busiest time of the year – is cautious enthusiasm.

‘It’s good news,’ says David Cairns, president of David Cairns & Company Media Management in Toronto. But given the imminent launch of a whole slew of new specialty channels, ‘It’s pretty small news,’ he says, adding that the community’s thoughts are elsewhere. ‘Everyone’s in a buying mood for the fall.’

What can Canadians expect to see if this new daily is launched?

‘We don’t want to talk about it more than we have to,’ says Gordon Fisher, vice-president of editorial for Black-owned Southam Inc., and the man responsible for heading up the new project. ‘Directionally, it will be a national newspaper of high quality.’

He also makes it clear that despite the fact that Black – who owns close to 60 newspapers across Canada – once expressed an interest in buying The Financial Post, the new tabloid will not emulate that Toronto business daily but will instead offer general news, with a strong business presence.

As for advertising, Fisher says the publication will target high-end advertisers who don’t currently use newspapers and, by doing so, poach market share from magazines and television.

‘The incredible proliferation of tv channels works to our advantage,’ he says, adding that the much-discussed 500-channel universe will only make it more and more difficult for advertisers to reach their audience, thus making newspapers more relevant.

Fisher also hints that there could be a price war. ‘I can’t really predict competitive response,’ he says, but adds that the paper’s pricing and packaging – which will take advantage of Southam’s local links – will make the buy an attractive one.

Gordon says his team is busy assembling marketing focus groups and speaking with some members of the advertising community. He admits that, because the product is still being developed, no one is promising to come aboard – but they like what they hear. ‘You develop that newspaper, we’ll come to the party,’ says Fisher, describing what some media planners are telling him.

‘I bet you that (media planners) are licking their lips,’ says Roger Parkinson, publisher of The Globe and Mail. He says, however, that he doesn’t see the Globe engaging in a price war to attract advertising because the Globe already enjoys enviable demographics – and advertising revenues. ‘It’s Media 101,’ he says.

And the Globe has not been resting comfortably on its laurels. ‘It’s an ongoing process,’ says Parkinson. The paper has invested heavily in improving its product over the past several years, expanding both Report on Business (in 1995) and the weekend section (last year).

Overall, he says he expects the new publication to inject some excitement into the medium – and that’s good news for Canadian readers, journalists and advertisers.

‘If Conrad Black does it, it will be a high-quality product,’ he says. As to whether that will mean it – and other Canadian newspapers – can survive in a crowded medium, he is not comfortable speculating. ‘We’ll have to see.’

‘I think a very good publication can strengthen the medium,’ says Sunni Boot, executive vice-president and executive director for Optimedia. Boot says that if the daily does not try to emulate either The Financial Post or The Globe and Mail, there’s room for another newspaper in Canada’s print landscape. ‘I think the business community is very well served by the current press.’

However, she says a complementary publication – like the flashy tabloid USA Today – could work wonders to increase the still-vibrant medium. ‘USA Today is successful,’ says Boot, ‘because it doesn’t compete with The New York Times or a Boston daily.’ The fact that the publication can be read in less than half an hour doesn’t hurt its appeal either, she says. ‘The beauty of USA Today is it’s all McNews.’

Fisher says that although the Southam team has looked at everything, the new publication will not be modelled after USA Today or British tabloids Ñ or anything else specifically. ‘It will be a unique, made-in-Canada paper.’

Meanwhile, Cairns says he finds the choice of a tabloid format ‘kind of bizarre’, adding that there is a perceived quality issue with tabloids – less literate and less substantial, yet often more opinionated.

Cairns also doesn’t see how the new publication can avoid funneling advertisers from Southam’s other papers. ‘At the end of the day, everything cannibalizes from everything.’

However, if Southam, with its strong local presence across Canada, goes the route of some broadcasters and offers one-stop regional and national shopping for media buyers, all the better, says Optimedia’s Boot. ‘That’s a selling point.’