Canadian Publisher Has Faith in Tabloid Formula : It Might Be Difficult for Sun to Shine in D.C.

WASHINGTON — Pictures of scantily clad women! Crime stories! Pages laid out like ransom notes! Lots of exclamation points!

Is all that, plus articles like “Story Tells of Road Death,” coming soon to a Washington-area newsrack?

Maybe.

Toronto Sun Publishing Co., Canada’s most accomplished practitioner of tabloid journalism, is moving in on Washington, and a new newspaper may not be far behind. Earlier this month, the company agreed to pay $10.2 million to buy a printing plant in Gaithersburg, Md., capable of producing a daily challenger to the Washington Post and the Washington Times.

Off-Beat Fare

Sun executives have not yet given their official blessing to the launch of a Washington Sun, pending a study of the local market, but the company, flush with cash, sounds increasingly like it is spoiling for a fight.

“I can’t tell you a reason why our brand of journalism wouldn’t be a success in the U.S.,” said Toronto Sun publisher Paul Godfrey.

In that case, brace yourself.

For readers of the Post or the Washington Times, the Washington Sun would be a change of pace. Along with sister papers in Calgary and Edmonton, the Sun, Canada’s third-largest daily, mimics the thriving tabloids of England and the few holdouts in the United States, such as the New York Post.

The Sun’s daily columns are filled with a hash of offbeat human-interest stories, entertainment news and gossip, lots of sports and some rather tame appeals to prurient interests.

One of the better-known features is the Page 3 “SUNshine Girl,” who, though provocatively attired, actually displays no more skin than the average model in a health club ad. The Sun also runs a daily photo of a “SUNshine Boy,” albeit deeper inside the paper.

As such, readers of a would-be Washington Sun aren’t likely to find many scoops, or even much “hard” news.

National and international events and business news in the Toronto paper get trivial play.

A wire service story about the attempted assassination of Secretary of State George Shultz by terrorists in Bolivia was knocked off in two paragraphs on Page 35 one day last week, apparently bumped from greater prominence by an article recounting a knife fight at a local soccer game that left three spectators with minor stab wounds.

On the same day, the paper’s business section carried a large news story on its parent company’s purchase of the Maryland printing facility, four days after the deal was announced. Coverage of the recent economic summit conference in Toronto included daily horoscopes of the seven leaders.

Publisher Godfrey, who served as metropolitan chairman of Toronto, an elected office, said the paper’s strengths are its columnists, local news and entertainment and sports coverage.

In fact, these elements dominate the paper. In classic tabloid fashion, crime and death stories are the prime local news fodder, although befitting the generally tranquil Toronto life, there are fewer lurid touches than would be found in an American version of the paper. “We don’t get many murders up here,” notes Marianne Godwin, a communications industry analyst for Merrill Lynch Canada.

While the formula is unorthodox by American standards, it clearly appeals to Toronto readers and advertisers.

Doubts About Formula

Almost instantly profitable from its founding in 1971, the Sun has carved out a niche among younger residents and blue-collar workers in one of the most competitive newspaper markets in North America.

Noting big recent gains in advertising, Godwin calls the Sun “a newspaper success story.” In fact, thanks largely to the profit generated by its flagship paper, Sun Publishing has been able to subsidize a new Toronto business daily, and the company recently purchased a weekly paper in Ottawa, Canada’s capital, that will be relaunched as a daily next month.

Sun also made a killing by selling the Houston Post last year to Texas newspaper mogul William Dean Singleton for $150 million, $58 million more than it paid for it in late 1983. And with 51% of its stock owned by Maclean Hunter Ltd., Canada’s biggest publishing company, Sun Publishing’s pockets look deep.

Could the Sun’s editorial formula work in Washington?

Newspaper industry analyst John Morton doesn’t think so. Although the Toronto and Washington areas share some similarities, such as a heavily traveled subway system that seems ripe for a tabloid-size paper, Morton said the two markets are more dissimilar than alike.

For one thing, Washington is largely white collar and affluent and unlikely to be attracted to a Sun clone, he said.

In addition, Toronto has a large number of European immigrants who have grown up with Sun-style tabloids in their native countries, Morton said, noting that Washington’s immigrant population is smaller and has no similar experience.

Morton also cited the dominance of the Washington Post, which has one of the highest levels of household readership in its circulation area among all metropolitan newspapers.

“The history of the newspaper business has been that it’s not just difficult to start a newspaper to reach an audience that is already well served by the existing paper,” Morton said, “it’s impossible.”