The newspaper market will seem much more cluttered in Ottawa, starting this week.

RushHour, a free, daily newspaper from Ottawa Citizen parent company CanWest, will likely hit commuters today, representatives from the Citizen confirmed last week.

And sources say two more free commuter tabloids – one English and the other French – are likely to hit the market shortly from Quebecor, parent company of SunMedia and the Ottawa Sun. They will likely be the same or similar to SunMedia's 24 Hours, already distributed in Toronto and Vancouver.

CanWest told the OBJ that instead of trying to enter an already-packed morning market, RushHour will position itself as the afternoon commuter paper of choice.

"The morning spot is so congested right now," said Jim Orban, publisher of the Citizen. "The Ottawa market already has three daily newspapers, we have tons of radio stations, even your own company . . . Success is going to be determined by advertiser demand."

RushHour will print weekdays, between 3 and 6 p.m., with news updated from throughout the day for the commute home, he said.

"We asked ourselves, 'If we were a new market entry . . . what would we do?' We looked at people that are stressed for time – they're multi-taskers. They have an interest not just in their own community, but in national and international news, and also lifestyle news. We're hesitant to say we're targeting a demographic."

Mr. Orban said RushHour is banking on 60,000 daily "viewers." The paper will not differentiate between readers of its print edition and readers who download and print it in PDF form.

Print and PDF versions will be available Monday to Thursday, he said. On Fridays, a more "robust" edition will only come in PDF form.

SunMedia's 24 Hours is also expected to enter the Ottawa market. Although reports vary, it could be as early as tomorrow, or possibly in one or two week's time.

Ottawa Sun publisher Rick Gibbons would not comment on the plans, but would not deny they were afoot.

"I'm not in a position to say anything about it, or about those rumours," he said. "We don't discuss rumours. We have no comment at this time."

Sources told the OBJ, however, that 24 Hours is ready to launch with two editions: a French-language version for Gatineau, with perhaps 40,000 copies printed; and an English-language version in Ottawa with 80,000.

All three new publications will join Metro, the free commuter daily which has consistently printed 60,000 copies five days a week in Ottawa since early 2005.

In Ottawa, Metro is a partnership between Metro Inc., TorStar and CanWest. How that partnership will play itself out if CanWest launches a rival commuter paper is anyone's guess. Representatives of Metro did not return calls. However, Citizen reps said they had the okay from their lawyers.

"That was one of the first things we checked," said Mr. Orban. "From a legal standpoint, we got the green light for that early on.

"(Metro's) not aware what we're doing," he added, "but in terms of our proprietary relationship, we have the legal right to launch this multi-faceted product."

The new products are a sign of a rapidly changing newspaper industry, said Chris Waddell, associate director of Carleton's School of Journalism and Communications. Battles currently playing out in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver are making their way to Ottawa now.

"Newspapers realize they're having problems. They're losing advertising to the Internet. They're also losing circulation to the Internet. They're being hurt by the free dailies. So, they're looking for ways to respond to (that)," he said.

Whether the market can support three free commuter dailies is another question, he added.

"My guess is that there's not enough commuters for it to work," he said, adding that until he saw the products, it would be hard to pass judgment. "It's hard to know without knowing more about how they're going to target the papers."

For example, even though CanWest's last foray into Ottawa's commuter market, Dose, went bust in just over a year, a new daily that picks a niche target may be more successful than a catch-all, he said.

"When Dose came out, it was very much targeted towards young people," said Mr. Waddell. "If one of these papers comes out targeting young people, it may have a chance. Xpress (a youth-oriented arts weekly) seems to have a good thing going. If it's more like the Xpress, then it may have more of a chance of success."

Mr. Orban said RushHour was to be a surprise from the start. Advertising reps have been busy selling, he said, but otherwise, CanWest intentionally kept the public in the dark about the new product for maximum impact.

Black boxes – which may or may not be Dose's old distribution vessels – are to go up like mushrooms across the downtown by today.

Six years ago, free commuter dailies began arriving in North American cities with extensive municipal transit systems after the trend swept Europe.

RushHour was first set to launch about 18 months ago. Plans were cancelled when CanWest opted to make a go of Dose, which itself was cancelled in May after a year on the stands. CanWest then entered into the partnership with Ottawa's Metro.

What will become of Ottawa's major subscription dailies once there are three free dailies for residents to read? Mr. Orban said he did not foresee changes at the Citizen, but added that a reevaluation will occur after six weeks.

However, the free dailies may dig into the Sun's share of the market, Mr. Waddell said.

"The Toronto Sun has had problems coping with the free dailies in Toronto," he said. "The Sun market in Toronto is very much the commuter market. Which is also the case (in Ottawa). So it would hurt the Sun more than the other papers."

The market may yet change in Ottawa. Thousands more commuters may one day traverse the city if light rail is expanded, and the possibility of that happening may be what Quebecor and CanWest are banking on.

In the interim, commuters and readers are the ones benefiting.

"What made the Sun a success in Toronto when it first came out in the '60s is it pitched itself to people riding the subway," said Mr. Waddell. "We don't have quite that much commuter traffic at the moment. We may have more, if there is an O-Train built.

"I think it's great if it's happening," he added. "The more competition, the better. There's always a better product all around if there's more choice."