New rival for local news?

Cryptic online want ad seeks writers for daily operation

Raleigh might soon get a new daily newspaper.

A want ad appearing on the Web site craigslist.org seeks writers for "a daily news operation publishing Monday through Friday to be opened in Raleigh later this year."

The company placing the ad bills itself as an "established newspaper company" but doesn't identify itself. Nor does the ad give a sense of the scale of the planned new venture.

Efforts to reach the company through the ad elicited an e-mail response that the venture isn't yet far enough along to talk about its plans.

It's unclear whether a printed newspaper, presumably with a companion online edition, is in the works. Another possibility would be an online- only publication.

A brand-new market entry seeking to attract enough readers and advertisers to cover the investment and return a profit would face a mountain of challenges, which is why such start-up daily newspapers are a rarity.

Industry analysts pointed to Clarity Media Group as a likely candidate, given its track record of launching free dailies in two cities over the past two years, with plans for more. Clarity is backed by billionaire Philip Anschutz, the founder of telecommunications company Qwest and majority owner of the Regal movie theater chain.

But a spokesman for Clarity Media said that the company is not entering the Raleigh market.

Still, last month, a subsidiary of Clarity registered the domain name raleighexaminer.com. Of course, that doesn't mean the company has immediate plans to use it. Last month, Clarity also registered the domain name fortwayneexaminer.com but told the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette that it has no immediate plans to develop that site.

Another possibility is Metro International, a European company that publishes free newspapers in cities around the world, including Philadelphia, New York and Boston.

A spokesman for Metro International said the company doesn't comment on its plans.

Jock Lauterer, a journalism lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of the book "Community Journalism," said none of the current publishers in the state are obvious candidates. "If it's a North Carolina group that is doing it, it would be out of character," he said.

Whoever is behind the venture, industry experts say going head-to-head with an entrenched newspaper such as The News & Observer will be tough.

"The history of trying to start a daily where there already is one is that it has never worked," said newspaper analyst John Morton of Morton Research.

Traditional newspaper publishers wouldn't even consider entering the Raleigh market, said Conrad Fink, who teaches newspaper management at the University of Georgia.

"In most board rooms, that would be considered suicide," Fink said.

Online venture

An online-only venture with lower costs would have a better shot of succeeding, said Philip Meyer, a journalism professor at UNC-Chapel Hill.

"If I want to go into business and take on The N&O," Meyer said, "I wouldn't go with ink on paper."

But newspaper Web sites have been successful only because they are offshoots of print products with well-established brand names, Morton said. A new online-only publication wouldn't have those advantages.

N&O Publisher Orage Quarles III said he would reserve comment until details emerge about the new venture. "There is really nothing I can comment on," he said. "Anything I say would be pure speculation."

The Craig's List ad says the company has filled its full-time writing positions but is seeking a half-dozen part-time and freelance writers "to supplement our news coverage."

"We need writers who can do short, snappy news stories that are typical to the AP [Associated Press] style," the ad states. "We're NOT looking for magazine writers who are writing full-length articles."

The part-time slots they want to fill seem to indicate a general-interest daily. They include reporters to cover local and state government, "crime and court news," sports and entertainment.

Metro International also has been pushing into new markets. It publishes in 17 countries and last year launched 17 new editions. According to the company, New York Metro has a daily circulation of nearly 670,000.

The Metro publications are distributed only in racks and by hand at strategic locations, including bus and subway stops.

Trying their own

Ten years ago, a group of local business executives who were dissatisfied with The N&O's news coverage and editorial positions explored the feasibility of publishing a rival newspaper. Among those executives was Bob Luddy, who is president of a Raleigh producer of commercial kitchen ventilation systems, Captive-Aire Systems.

Their conclusion? "It didn't make sense financially," Luddy said.

(News researcher Becky Ogburn contributed to this story.)