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A free weekly newspaper targeting busy young adults made its debut Friday in black and gold boxes in grocery stores, restaurants, gyms and on street corners in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.
The Times Publishing Co., which also publishes the St. Petersburg Times, launched tbt* with an initial distribution of 75,000 copies. The name tbt* is short for Tampa Bay Times. It was developed as a way to reach readers ages 25 to 35 who are interested in news and features but who may not be regular readers of the daily paper.
A companion Web site, www.tampabay.com was launched at the same time. The site includes searchable entertainment listings.
"Adults in this age group have wide interests and plenty of options about how to satisfy them. The only thing they're short of is time," said Paul Tash, editor and chairman of Times Publishing. "We're confident we can give them a newspaper that is local, useful and fun. There's nothing else like it on the market."
Like many other metropolitan newspaper offshoots aimed at younger readers, tbt* offers a heavy dose of entertainment news and features, including restaurant and movie listings and information about places to go and things to do. What the publishers hope makes it different is a wide variety of other stories, many with a local focus.
"We're trying to be almost like a weekly newsmagazine," editor Anne Glover said. But in this newsmagazine, the news is delivered in short chunks with colorful photos and no attempt at serious analysis. It bills itself as "zippy news for time-challenged adults."
The 96-page inaugural issue has Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive back Ronde Barber on the cover. Instead of a sports story inside, there is a short Q&A with Barber and "25 reasons Tampa Bay loves football season." Barber's smile is No. 18, but food and beer rank higher.
Other features include ideas for shopping and home decorating and advice on computers, jobs, health, parenting and romantic relationships.
Glover said some stories will be written for tbt*, while others will be shorter versions of stories previously published in the St. Petersburg Times or stories taken from Times wire services. As a free publication, it will be supported primarily by retail advertising and a small classified section. Times Publishing officials said they were pleased by the initial response from advertisers.
Helen Huntley can be reached at huntley@sptimes.com or 727 893-8230.