US: New daily launches in Kansas, to compete with two existing papers

Posted by Kelley Vendeland on May 6, 2008 at 9:33 AM

A new daily has launched in Liberal, Kansas, joining a newspaper market that already includes the weekly The Liberal Light and The Times, which cut back from daily to three times a week in January.

Defying the current economic slump in the U.S. newspaper market, the new High Plains Daily Leader is printing 7,000 copies daily of the 14-page broadsheet. A free Spanish-language weekly will be published on Thursdays, catering to Liberal's large Hispanic population, many of whom work in the local meatpacking industry.

Earl Watt, publisher of the Daily Leader, had been publisher of the Times but resigned that position last week. Around 70 percent of the Times' employees also left last week to work with Watt, he said.

For most cities, launching a third paper into the market would be economic suicide. However, Liberal's isolated location in the far southwest corner of Kansas may make it possible to sustain all three.

"As you get more isolated, and your market draws more shoppers from a larger area, you tend to have more potential to keep your daily," said Doug Anstaett, executive director of the Kansas Press Association.

Source: Editor & Publisher