Freebie market growing in Calgary

Things are heating up in Canada's fastest growing city. CanWest Mediaworks Publications Inc. launched Calgary RushHour, a free news, sports and entertainment tabloid, on Tuesday. It will be available weekday mornings by 6 a.m. in downtown Calgary locations. Metro is also gearing up to launch one its commuter freebies in the Alberta city; can 24 Hours be far behind? A Canadian Press story notes the heated competition in the city.

This is CanWest's first full-fledged effort into the the world of printed giveaways. It has one-third interests in Metro papers in Ottawa and Montreal. The company launched an online version of RushHour in Ottawa in November, the same month Sun Media's 24 Hours was launched in print (in French and English) in that city. Metro was the first of the major players in the Ottawa market with a free tabloid. Metro and Sun Media publish freebies in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.

(If you know of any other newspaper births or deaths let us know)

UPDATE: Torstar Wednesday announced it will, in partnership with Metro International, launch Metro in Calgary next month followed by the introduction of the morning freebie in Edmonton in April. With a total of 60,000 copies per Alberta city, bringing its total Canadian circulation up to nearly three-quarters of a million per day. (Canadian Press story notes March 5 and April 2 launch dates). No word from Sun Media regarding a launch of 24 Hours in one or both cities, but a source tells us to expect one in Calgary soon.