Courtesy of t.o. night

Compact and glossy, t.o. night is Toronto’s latest edition into the free newspaper market, but this one is aimed at the afternoon commuter. Distributed daily from 3:30 PM – 6:30 PM in the downtown core, t.o. night is relying on wire stories, not reporters as their news source and they are partnering with a local blog, BlogTO for local interest stories. Occasionally it will feature a guest columnist.

Instead of paper boxes, 100,000 copies of t.o. night will be handed out by modern day paper boys called “Newsies” who will be strategically stationed near downtown Toronto’s public transit hubs. Not an offspring of another newspaper company, t.o. night’s investors include media giant, St. Joseph Communications, Richard Costley-White, owner of Blackburn Radio and a former publisher of The London Free Press, and unnamed private investors. They obviously are betting on the success of a free evening daily and can look to successes in Britain and Australia to support their theory. However, the detractors are saying that commuters would rather read their news online on hand held devices than read news wire stories in t.o. night. Only time will tell which of the opposing sides is proven to be right.

t.o. night is small, only 8.5 inches by 10.5 inches, making it very easy to handle and less likely to disturb your commuting neighbours than the larger Metro and 24. It is also published in full colour on coated magazine paper. This no doubt makes it considerably more attractive than the other free morning dailies, but on the downside, it makes it a much more costly paper to publish. Advertising will make or break the paper and it remains to be seen whether they see the value in t.o. night. Do you?