Trainspinning

For months, Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. — parent company of the Inquirer and Daily News — seemed largely unconcerned that it soon would be facing new competition in the form of a free daily newspaper for SEPTA riders. In October, PNI spokeswoman Pamela Browner was quoted in the Inquirer as saying: "We believe we have a sold base of loyal readership who look to the columnists, reporters, and the newspapers that have the credibility here locally."

But suddenly, PNI is sounding increasingly hostile. In on- and off-the-record comments, and in a recent letter from a vice president, some at PNI are dismissing the new paper, TPI Metro PA, as a lightweight, both as an advertising vehicle and as a provider of reliable news.

And it’s not even on the street yet.

TPI Metro PA is the result of SEPTA’s search for a better way to communicate with its riders. In June 1999, SEPTA issued a request for proposals, seeking offers from companies that could help it produce some sort of regular newsletter. A Swedish company, Modern Times Group, responded with a proposal to publish a free daily newspaper, much like those the company publishes in Stockholm, Prague and other European cities.

By August, SEPTA and Transit Publications Inc. (TPI) — Modern Times Group’s new North American branch — had a contract for a Monday-through-Friday newspaper, to be distributed free at rail and subway stations and bus stops throughout SEPTA’s service area. Under the five-year contract, TPI owns and operates the paper. SEPTA gets a cut of the advertising revenue — a minimum of $30,000 per month (more if the contract is extended) — and one page in each edition on which SEPTA can publish, well, pretty much whatever it wants. SEPTA estimates the value of this free advertising at about $1.1 million per year.

Metro is scheduled to launch on Monday.

To be sure, no one is going to confuse it with the Inquirer or Daily News. Though a tabloid like the Daily News, Metro’s front page will more closely resemble USA Today’s — with lots of very short stories. Inside, Metro will average 14 stories per page, all of them extremely brief, according to publisher Jack Roberts, a former Daily News editor. "You’re supposed to be able to read us in 20 to 25 minutes," he explains.

Still, this couldn’t come at a worse time for PNI. Both the Inquirer and Daily News suffered huge circulation losses in 1999 — the result, in part, of scaling back on some marketing efforts, but losses nonetheless. And while the Daily News and Inquirer may be more comprehensive, Metro will be free.

Hence the concern, and the aforementioned letter, which was sent to PNI advertisers and media companies.

Signed by PNI vice president for sales and marketing Todd Brownrout, the letter claims that 59 percent of SEPTA riders read the Inquirer or Daily News, and points out that both papers reach a much broader audience. "The bottom line," the letter states, "is we believe that shifting ad dollars to Metro will do little to extend the reach of your buy in the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News."

A PNI-produced flier goes on to suggest that Metro will be beholden to SEPTA; the headline is "Metro… big city newspaper or SEPTA newsletter?"

Browner, who returned City Paper’s call to Brownrout, says PNI just wants everyone to know what they’re getting with Metro. "They are sharing revenue with SEPTA," she says, "and editorial content, by the contract, has to be approved by SEPTA."

The contract states that the paper "must conform to SEPTA’s editorial standards for content." SEPTA spokeswoman Barbara Siegel says that means Metro must observe "obvious standards of a daily mass media newspaper — fairness and honesty in advertising, good taste and presumption of fairness and accuracy in coverage of the news. SEPTA does not have a voice in Metro’s editorial policy, in terms of what it chooses to cover as news."

But Browner, like others at PNI, wonders how Metro would have covered SEPTA’s controversial handling of the lawsuit brought by the family of the little boy who lost a foot in a subway station escalator.

"I have a hard time believing they will cover SEPTA with any real aggressiveness," says Zack Stalberg, editor of the Daily News. "And I don’t think they’ll cover anything that SEPTA board members care about with any real aggressiveness.

"I consider Jack [Roberts] a friend of mine," Stalberg adds (Roberts was the Daily News’ city editor from 1984 to ’91). "I’m disappointed he would go to work for SEPTA. I thought he was a pure journalist, so I’m disappointed in that. But he’s a good, smart newspaper guy, and I like competition, so I’m excited about that."

Roberts, who also was editor and associate publisher of Philadelphia Business Journal and, more recently, director of business development for Farm Journal publications, reacts to such comments with something between amusement and annoyance. "That issue [journalistic integrity] will be absolutely clear when we’re publishing and they can read us," he says.

"We would have covered [the escalator lawsuit] the same way we’d report anything in the paper," he adds. "We would just report it straight.… But I will tell you, it would be reported."

"It’s just not possible" for SEPTA to control the editorial, adds Editor Mary Ellen Bornak, who came to Metro from the Bucks County Courier Times. There is no system in place for SEPTA to monitor content before the paper goes to press, nor will there be, she says.

Former Inquirer columnist Clark DeLeon has joined Metro’s team of contributors, and says he has no intention of pulling punches if SEPTA ever warrants his attention. The escalator case, he says, would definitely have been fodder for his column.

"How could you expect a columnist not to go off on that?" he says. No one has suggested that any topics will be off-limits, he adds, and he won’t tolerate censorship. "The day that happens, you won’t see me in the paper anymore."

—Frank Lewis