The Examiner chain of free dailies is nothing if not ambitious, with papers in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore and plans to launch in other major markets.

The question has been where next and when?

It's looking like Los Angeles, and as early as the end of the year, according to a newspaper industry source familiar with the growth plans of parent Clarity Media Group, owned by Colorado billionaire Philip Anschutz.

The Los Angeles Examiner would directly challenge the foundering Los Angeles Times, owned by Tribune Co.

Clarity has trademarked the Examiner name in 69 markets, and it's said it plans several additional launches in the near future, but chain executives decline to confirm or deny that it is working to launch in Los Angeles by year's end.

“We do have expansion plans, but I am not prepared to comment now on any specific market launches,” Mark Wurzer, chief marketing officer for Clarity Media Group, tells Media Life. “All I can say is that we have growth plans, but I can’t give you a time frame.”

Media buyers in Los Angeles say they would welcome the Examiner as competition to the beleaguered Los Angeles Times.

“It could be a good time for the Examiner to break through and fill the gap the LA Times is leaving,” Adam Block, a print media buyer at Initiative Media North America in Los Angeles, tells Media Life.

“From a buying standpoint we would certainly use that leverage. Past history has proven that free dailies put pressure in the market, and we would expect that to happen here.”

Just what the Examiner's launch strategy would be is the big unknown, though the industry source indicates those plans have advanced to the point of preparing collateral materials such as rate cards.

It could choose the model it's adopted in San Francisco and Washington, publishing a smaller paper than its rivals, with a third of the circulation, while targeting high-income neighborhoods with free delivery. Or it could go the way of the Baltimore Examiner and put out a paper that matches the Times' circulation of more than 800,000.

But the core Examiner model is known: a free daily with lots of local stories aimed largely at busy women as the key household decision-makers and offering advertisers rates a third or half of those charged by the existing newspaper.

Anschutz's Clarity was formed in 2004 with the purchase of the long-struggling San Francisco Examiner from the Fang family, which had acquired it from Hearst following its purchase of the Chronicle. Anschutz began pumping money into the daily, building it up after its several disastrous years under the Fangs. The following year Clarity launched the Washington Examiner, and then last year came Baltimore.

The effect in those markets has been positive, say media buyers. In Baltimore, the Sun has responded by cutting ad rates and generally being more responsive to buyers.

Why Los Angeles as the next market for the Examiner?

For one, it's huge, and for another, for all the city's size it has just one dominant paper, the Times. And to boot, the Times is another Tribune paper, like the Baltimore Sun, one that's long struggled with Tribune management over budget cuts and leadership issues. 

There have been past efforts to launch a paper to compete directly with the Times. Former LA Mayor Richard Riordan had plans in 2003 to launch a politically oriented weekly aimed at upscale readers called the Los Angeles Examiner, but it was never published.

But another reason for the Examiner to launch in Los Angeles is to get in ahead of other free chains that may be eyeing the city. Freesheets, as they are called, are already shaking up European newspaper markets, they've moved into Canada, and more are expected to launch in this country.

The Examiner fits that mode as a tab with short stories that don't jump. What sets it apart from the Metro chain and other so-called subway tabs is that the Examiner offers home delivery, allowing advertisers to target upscale readers.

“We’re a quality complete local paper delivered to a high-quality audience for free, and that’s the difference,” says Clarity's Wurzer. “We select the areas we deliver the paper to based on who is likely to read it and who our advertisers want to reach.”