Competition for USA Today? Reader JM today sends along an e-mail that clearly looks like spam. But is it? Here is a press release I found for the USA Times that is similar to the e-mail, and it obviously doesn't inspire a lot of confidence. Apparently it's going to be sold through some multiple-level-marketing system, sort of like NuSkin.

Says the press release:

This will be the first nationwide newspaper in 21 years! You Know How Huge USA TODAY is, so you can imagine the potential! The newspaper will be promoted by MLM. This is going to be a very big deal and their 5 level commission plan is awesome!

Hmmm.

The press release directs you to this page at a site called newsbucks.com, which describes the USA Times as "THE LARGEST VENTURE IN THE HISTORY OF NETWORK MARKETING!" It continues: "The USA TIMES is poised to take the nation by storm with a new kind of hard hitting journalism that people will want to see on their doorstep every day of the week!"

So is it real? I did a "whois" search, and it turns out that the domain name newsbucks.com and theusatimes.com are registered with the same owner, which is a good sign, I suppose. It appears to be based in Miami.

And there is a classy-looking website for the USA Times that claims the paper will launch on January 1.

I wouldn't want to bet that the USA Times will ever come into being, but it's worth keeping an eye on.