Bold newspaper project in U.S.

Press, 16 September 1982, Page 23

Bold newspaper project in U.S.

PA Washington At a time when newspapers in the United States are being shut down with sickening regularity, one of the country's biggest newspaper publishers this week launches a bold new project.

Its backers believe that it could soon be earning millions of dollars a year, but sceptics predict it is doomed to be an expensive failure. “USA Today", is to be launched by ’ the Gannett Company, the country’s largest newspaper chain, which owns 85 local dailies in 35 states, as well as seven television channels. 13 radio stations, and other information services.

What makes “USA Today" different from other American newspapers is that it will be the first general

interest daily to be sold across the country. Because of the size of the United States, most newspapers are distributed only in the areas where they are published. Even a newspaper of such international repute as the “New York Times" circulates mainly in the New York metropolitan area. Several newspapers, such as the “Wall Street Journal” and the "Christian Science Monitor," simultaneously produce several editions around the country, but these are aimed at a specialist readership. The aim of “USA Today” is much more ambitious.

Starting in the WashingtonBaltimore area this week the circulation of the newspaper will be swiftly expanded to cover most of the East Coast and the Midwest by next year, and the whole of the country the vear after.

This will be achieved by. beaming newspage formats from a satellite dish at the newspaper's headquarters outside Washington to 14 Gannett publishing plants around the country. The new paper, which will average 40 pages each day in four sections, will be bright, colourful and easy to read. It is being aimed in particular at what Allen Neuharth. chairman of Gannett, describes as a “mobile audience". — the millions of Americans who ’• travel around the country each day by air or by road’.. 1