FDN NEWSLETTER NO. 28 – www.newspaperinnovation.com - 770 subscribers – September 2007

Israel Seoul Germany Denmark Second free daily launches, Eight free dailies One year after Cologne freebie From 9 to 4 titles two more expected (p. 1) in one city (p.1) freebie war (p.2) war drags on (p.3) within one year (p. 3)

Market Shares Europe 2006 contract that would secure distribution in most Egged bus stations. Complicating fact, however, is that Israeli also n 2006 the market share of free dailies in Europe grew has a contract with Egged. to 22 percent, from 14 percent in 2005. In 15 countries the share of free dailies is above 20 percent. Paid Two more papers are planned. The project by David I Wiessman (Blue Square supermarket chain and the Dor circulation in Europe dropped from 87 to 86 million; free circulation went up from 15 to 26 million. Alon energy group) and Eli Azur (owner of The Jerusalem Post) is called Metro and will have a circulation of 250,000. It will be published in the afternoon. The free daily from publisher Arnon Mozes (Yedioth Ahronoth) will have a circulation of 300,000. It is planned to be a print edition of Ynet, the online news website by Yedioth Ahronoth.

‘Exposure’ (readership) of Israeli has risen from 11.4% in 2006 to 12.3% in 2007. Yediot Ahronot’s exposure dropped from 39.3% to 39.6%. (TGI)

Publishing a daily in Israel, is more about political influence than about money - except that you need money to publish one. Israeli (2006) is “relatively right-wing Zionist” and leaning to the Likud Party. Israel Today owner Sheldon Adelson has the same political affiliations, he is close to Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu. According to Haaretz “it is a newspaper with an agenda”, Netanyahu’s agenda that is. Adelson visited the office in Tel Aviv to explain the policy of the paper. So much for editorial independence. (Globes, Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, Arutz Sheva, Poynter Tidbits)

Seoul: eight free dailies The 8th free daily in Seoul, launched in July 2007 is IlIlKyungJe, meaning the Daily Economic. Circulation is 100,000. The 7th free daily was evening paper The City, launched in May 2007. In November 2006 a 6th free daily was launched: the Daily NoCutNews (right), by CBS (Christian Broadcasting System). Also Metro, Daily Focus, Sports Hankook, AM7 and Daily Zoom are published in Seoul.

New Colorado free daily FDN - BAROMETER Colorado, the state with the highest number of free dailies The FDN barometer measures free dailies and circulation, in the US, got a new free daily. Swift Newspapers, already comparing 2005 with August 2007. operating free dailies in six other markets, has launched The Northern Colorado Tribune, to cover Greeley, Free Dailies 2005 / August 2007 (circ. * 1000) Loveland and Fort Collins (north of Denver). The paper Countries Titles Circulation will print seven days a week, is home delivered and will 2005 2007 2005 2007 2005 2007 be available in racks as well. Swift also publishes paid Europe 24 29 80 128 15.291 26.999 Greeley Tribune and is also launching two and three America’s 8 9 44 63 4.439 6.446 Asia/Pac/Afr 7 13 16 31 4.224 7.185 days-a-week free papers in this area. (Free-Daily.com) Total 39 51 140 222 23.954 40.630 Free weekly Giro SP in Brasil Free weeklies have been around for a long time and in LAUNCHES amazing quantities. Some of them, however, have a distinct ‘daily’ look & feel. Sao Paolo free weekly Giro SP Israel Today has something else that makes it stand out from the On July 30, Israel Today (Yisrael Hayom) was launched. crowd: it is not targeted at high income groups. On the The paper had a circulation of 150,000, aimed to grow to contrary, Giro SP is meant for lower income readers. 300,000. The distribution is through public transport and Apart from Giro, also three free dailies: MetroNews, by home delivery (in Tel Aviv). Israel Today signed a Destak and Metro, are published in Sao Paolo.

FDN Newsletter no. 27 - September 2007 – page 1 of 5 PLANS London battlefield - one year later One year ago, on August 30, 2006, London saw the 20 Minutes to cross the ocean? conversion of the Standard Lite to London Lite. Circulation According to a Brazilian source, the Norwegians are was increased to 400,000. September 4, News about to discover Southern America. After Portguese International launched thelondonpaper with a circulation publisher Cofina launched Destak and Metro International of 425,000. Lite’s circulation is still around 400,000 while started an edition in Sao Paulo, Schibsted is said to be Murdoch’s free daily increased circulation to 500,000. The thinking about a free daily too. Schibsted seems to be survived, but not without bruises. talking with local partners (foreign investors can only have a minority interest) and advertising agencies. The Although there is not much evidence worldwide of publisher already has some operations in Latin America, substitution - except Iceland and perhaps Denmark - mainly as a result of the buying of the Trader website. London might be different. In the UK substitution is not very obvious as the graph (circulation x 1000) shows.

New Swiss - again According to the Persoenlich newsletter three Swiss publishers Basler Zeitung Medien, Tamedia and Espace Medien will launch a home delivered free morning daily in Basel, Bern and Zürich. This is meant to counter .ch that will launch September 19. The name is not yet revealed although the project was called Tagi in the beginning.

.ch will take an adventurous step to increase its credibility. Every week an outsider will be invited to write a ‘newspaper review’ about .ch. (Persoenlich)

Sixth free daily for Portugal Circulation already dropped before free papers were Controlinveste (Diario de Notícias, Jornal de Notícias) will introduced while it remained stable in the first free-daily launch free daily Global Notícias in September. The paper years (1999 - 2002). In 2003 paid circulation dropped will have a circulation of 150,000 and will be available in again although there was no increase in free circulation. Lisbon first, by home delivery and in public places. A The drop in paid circulation in 2006 could be attributed Porto edition is expected in 2008. Hugo Correia Pires, partly to the increase of free dailies although these dailies administrator of the group, said that he hopes that readers were only available in the last four months of that year. will eventually move to a paid daily later. (Publicitas) Leading tabloid lost 25% since 1995, down to 3 The new paper will be the 6th free daily in Portugal after million in 2006. Also the Mirror and Express lost, in all Destak (2004), Metro (2005), OJE (2006), Diário cases the decrease begun before the introduction of free Desportivo and Meia Hora (both 2007). Total free dailies. The Daily Record lost a third of its circulation in circulation is more than 550,000. Total paid circulation in the last 8 years. The remained stable while the 2006 was 620,000 meaning that with the new title there Star gained some circulation. Did the Evening Standard will be more free than paid circulation. Transferring suffer more than other papers? It lost 30% circulation readers from free to paid, however, has never been between 1999 and 2006, but dropped 10% since August shown in the - so far short - history of free dailies. 2006. A substantial part of this drop can be attributed to war. But circulation problems of the Tamedia targets Luxemburg Standard begun before this war - the battle might have increased the problems but it did not cause them. Swiss Tamedia - publisher of 20 Minuten - wants to expand to Luxemburg. Together with local publisher But why is News International Editpresse (Das Tageblatt) the free daily L’Essentiel will interested in the afternoon launch before the end of the year. Total paid circulation in market, as the Standard has Luxemburg is no more than 114,000 - but more than been losing money for years? 100,000 is in German, which means that if L’Essentiel is With the Sun dominating the published in French, this is a very small market. morning market, they are not

too eager to launch a Metro CIRCULATION & READERSHIP competitor that could hurt the Sun too. Apart from a personal Metro UK expands to 1.35 million interest of Murdoch, it could be With an increase from 1.1 to 1.35 million, Metro UK will that News International thinks strenghten its position as the free daily with the highest that the London afternoon circulation in one country worldwide. The rise will take market is profitable but that The Evening Standard is place in September. In Scottland distribution will increase doing a lousy job. News International seems confident with 8,000 to 10,000 - to be distributed in new areas like about the evening market, as it is thinking about launching Dundee and Perth while also Glasgow Airport will be thelondonpaper concept in other markets too. But even if covered. In London circulation will rise from 550,000 to that’s true, this market is probably not big enough for one 760,000. (Sunday Herald) paid and two free ones. And how long will Associated support two titles that are both losing money? Czech readership data Metro is the 5th best read paper in the Czech Republic More free MEN than paid for with 341,000 readers in the first half year of 2007 - in the Paid circulation of the Manchester Evening News has last 6 months of 2006 the paper had 319,000 readers. dropped from 94,000 (July - December 2006) to 88,000 in Blesk, MF Dnes, Pravo and Aha! have more readers. 24 June of this year. The free circulation of MEN went up Hodin participated for the first time and had 177,000 from 78,000 to 93,000. Total circulation is now 181,000 readers, Metropolitni Expres had 161,000 daily readers. (172,000 last year). (Guardian)

FDN Newsletter no. 28 - September 2007 – page 2 of 5 In May 2006 MEN closed down the free MEN Lite edition Arhus and South Jutland. Total circulation is around and offered the regular MEN for free in the city centre. In 500,000. Less than a year ago Denmark had 9 titles, 25 the MEN Lite period, the free edition had a circulation of editions, with a combined circulation of more than 2 11,000 while the paid paper sold 140,000 copies. Total million. Now there are 4 titles left, 14 editions and a circulation has risen (from 151,000 to 181,000) but clearly combined circulation of 1.6 million. In 2006 paid at the expense of the paid edition (minus 52,000 in little circulation was less than 1.3 million. more than a year). London publishers manage waste Free newspaper publishers Associated Newspapers The free/paid business model that was introduced by the (London Lite) and News International (thelondonpaper) Manchester Evening News iwas copied by The Liverpool will fund 64 recycling bins in Central London. The growing Daily Post in November last year. Circulation data indicate amount of waste has been on the agenda of the that thanks to a free distribution of 6,400 copies the paper Westminster City Council for months. City AM is not kept a total circulation of 22,000. Paid circulation dropped included in the deal. But also Associated Newspapers’ with 10.5% to 16,000. (How Do) other free daily, Metro, does not participate. In total more than 1.5 million copies of free dailies are distributed every Italian readership 2006/2007 weekday (PressGazette).

According to the 2006/2007 readership Audipress data most Fiat (La Stampa) interested in Metro paid papers in Italy lost readers According to Trend-Online, the Fiat (Agnelli family) while free papers saw publishing company Itedi (La Stampa) is interested in a readership grow. Gazzetta dello free daily. Reason is the growing advertising revenues for Sport had 3.6 million readers, free dailies. In the first six months of 2007 this was La Repubblica 2.9 million and estimated at €62m. The market, however, is crowded with Corriere della Sera 2.6 million. three general papers, a business paper (24 Minuti), a free Free dailies follow: 2 million for sports daily (Sport24) and some local titles. Leggo, 1.7 million for City and just below 1.7 million for Metro. As La Stampa does not own a free paper (they briefly Both La Stampa and Il published one in 2001) the company is looking for other Messaggero have 1.4 million options. Leggo is owned by competitor Caltagirone, City readers. E Polis had 515,000 by RCS (the Agnelli family owns 10% of RCS). Remaining readers. (Business Online) title Metro therefore is the obvious choice. Ad revenues might be rising, but no Italian free daily seems to make a Readership Romania profit so far. And as Metro International is not against selling papers (they sold Metro Finland in 2006) or Free daily Compact has a daily readership of 272,000 th minority shares and franchises, a sale could be possible. which makes it the 8 paper in Romania. Free daily

Curentul did not participate in the survey while Express has 45,000 readers. Libertatea is the best read paper with Leggo has the highest circulation (more than a million), 1.4 million readers. City and Metro both distribute around 850,000 copies.

UK & Irish circulation in June Cologne freebie war drags on News International’s thelondonpaper had a circulation of In December 1999 Schibsted launched 20 Minuten in 497,000 in June 2007 against 388,000 for London Lite. Cologne, followed by spoilers from local publisher DuMont City AM distributed 100,000 while Metro had a circulation Schauberg and Springer (Bild Zeitung). In July 2001 of 1,122,000. The Record PM in Scotland had a Schibsted gave up, the others also closed down. DuMont circulation of 19,000. In Dublin Herald AM distributed took Schibsted to court. 82,000 copies against 75,000 for the Irish Metro edition. They argued that a free daily was not a ‘real’ paper Readership data will not be available until September 13 so it was not protected by because June readership figures were based on law. Also it was argued that insufficient data according to the National Readership free dailies caused ‘unfair’ Survey (NRS). competition.

PUBLISHERS & TITLES In 2003 the courts decided that the complaints were 24timer merges again not valid so free and paid newspapers should be Danish free daily 24timer has swallowed the third local treated alike. Dumont free daily. After merging with local free dailies in Arhus Schauberg appealed, and (JPArhus+) and Aalborg now, in 2007, a higher court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) (Centrum), also the last free local decided that they could not decide. Because the paper daily, Xtra in Odense by Fyens was shut down the issue was resolved. A spokesman for Stiftstidende, has merged with Dumont explained that this means that “no publisher who 24timer. As the other merged wants to publish a free daily in Germany can be sure that titles, the new edition will the court will not stop them”. probably be published under the

combined name 24timer Xtra, like The court rule could be read the other way around as in Arhus (24timer Arhus+) and in well: the first verdict stands, free papers are protected by Aalborg (24timer Centrum). law like all papers. But the Gratis-Angst has a firm grip on (Kristine Lowe) German publishers who think market conditions can be

changed by court orders. These conditions in Germany 24timer has editions in are at the bottom end in Europe: a drop of 17% between Copenhagen, Odense, Aalborg, 1995 and 2006. And no free dailies to blame.

FDN Newsletter no. 28 - September 2007 – page 3 of 5 Any attempt will be met with legal action, DuMont CEO In Spain Metro publishes MetroSol during August on a Konstantin Neven DuMont: “This means we can go to daily basis. This summer edition replaces all other court again when a competing free daily will launch”. editions during the traditional holiday month in Spain. Metro Portugal went to a bi-weekly model in August while Deutsche Post is thinking about a free paper although the Greek and Italian editions closed down during this there were “no concrete plans”. DP will lose its monopoly month. Also most other Italian, Greek and Portuguese and is looking for new revenue streams. (Reuters) free dailies shut down during the summer.

Marseille Plus to Hersant 20 Minutes towards break-even French investment group Lagardere wil sell its regional Schibsted’s Q2 results showed a promising result for newspaper group to Hersant Media for €160m. Regional Spanish and French 20 Minutes editions. The profits newspapers La Provence, Nice Matin, Var Matin and free (Ebita) for the 20 minutes group were positive in the daily Marseille Plus are published in the south of France. second quarter (NOK 10m, €1.2m) after a 10 million loss in the first quarter. Also operating profits have gone up. Mecom’s bid for the papers (and for Le Monde’s Midi Spain is showing positive results for three quarters. Libre and Monpellier Plus) was turned down. Threaths of France recovered after a disappointing Q1. strikes at Nice Matin were meant to prevent the sale to Mecom. The position of Midi Libre and Monpellier Plus is Development of Swedish free daily Punkt SE, however, uncertain. Le Monde tried to sell the regional group for were not good with a loss of SEK 51m (€5.4m) in Q2, some time. Sud-Ouest (paid and free dailies in Bordeaux) readership of Punkt SE is good but ad sales are slow. is the prefered partner, for a price between €90m to Swedish mother paper Aftenbladet lost circulation but €100m. Consolidation in Southern France seems increased revenues, apparently by raising prices. unavoidable. (Interactive Investor, Le Libre, Le Figaro) The City (Seoul) on the tube MatinPlus expects metro deal The City, Seoul’s afternoon free daily, has gone fully Paris free morning paper MatinPlus is also distributed multi-media. Apart from the newspaper and the website, through 21 Monoprix supermarkets in Paris since last the City has formed a alliance with webcaster Pandora TV week. More important, however, is that the paper by the to enter online broadcasting and will be on TV screens in Bolloré Group and Le Monde (30%) expects a contract the Seoul subway. This last feature is because of an with Paris subway operator RATP to distribute in the Paris alliance with Mtube, TV operator for the Seoul subway. Metro as well. Until now, only free weekly A Nous Paris was distributed in the subway. There are no plans to Website for Obzor increase the distribution of 400,000. Paris has two other Ukraine free daily Obzor launched its own website. The free morning dailies (Metro and 20 Minutes) and one daily is owned by Dutch publisher De Telegraaf Media afternoon freebie: Direct Soir. (Le Monde) Group (TMG) and is a sister paper of Dutch free daily Spits. Logos are very similar while Spits’ head editor Bart Direct Soir shrinks Brouwers was in the Ukraine training the staff. French free evening paper Direct Soir (Bolloré Group) Vocento/Qué! deal completed has changed from the For €132m Basque publisher classic tabloid to micro (half Vocento has acquired free daily Berliner size). The move is in Qué! The paper was part of the line with the overall shrinking Recoletos group (Marca, newspaper. After more than Expansion) but was not sold to a 100 broadsheet-tabloid Italian media group RCS Media switches, some Berliner- group (Corriere della Sera) in switches or cutting of some the beginning of this year. centimeters, also switches to (Terra) even smaller sizes emerge. In Austria, Switzerland, Qué! was launched in 2005. Sweden and Eastern Europe Launching costs alone were the micro-model is already over €10m while the paper is used for other free dailies. (Le petit blog de la Presse still losing money now. In circulation the paper is just over Gratuite) 20 Minutos, both papers distribute almost a million copies. In readership Qué! is second. In June the paper hired new Free Beachies journalists for an expansion in either more editions or In July and August, many European free dailies stop more editorial quality. publishing, cut down on circulation, move to a weekly schedule or publish beach editions. Metro France Vocento publishes national daily ABC, regional dailies introduced the weekly Metro and free dailies in Bilbao (El Nervion) and Malaga (Que Plage. The magazine had a Pasa). The company also has a 30% stake in the circulation of 300,000 and was Valencia free daily El Micalet. It is not yet clear what the published along 1200 kilometers takeover will mean for these publications as Qué! has of beach. All other editions were also editions in Bilbao, Malaga and Valencia. shut down. Curtain for E Polis Direct Soir and Paris paper The last issue of the Italian E Polis MatinPlus, LillePlus, LyonPlus papers, a paid/ free daily with 15 and MarseillePlus shut down editions was published on July 16. during the summer. Monpellier Although many European free Plus went weekly. dailies have a special summer schedule, it could very well be that E Polis is closed down for good.

FDN Newsletter no. 28 - September 2007 – page 4 of 5 The company was aiming at 30 editions with a combined RESEARCH circulation of one million in 2008. The vast majority was distributed for free. The 15 editions were said to have a New on the ‘resources‘ page combined distribution of 700,000 but the readership of . Ingela Wadbring’s study “The Role of Free Dailies in a 515,000 suggests otherwise. Segregated Society” (Nordicom Review) on readersship in Sweden. Main cause for the closure is a dispute with the printer . A thesis for the Copenhagen Business School: “Det that claims to have an unpaid bill of almost €20m. Total Danske Marked For Gratisaviser” (The Danish Market losses, however, are said to be at least €40m. The 136 for Free Newspapers), by Marie Bakholdt Andersen journalist working for the papers have entered an and Christoffer Husted Rasmussen (in Danish with an unemployment progam. (Alice Notize, L’Opinione, English summary). QuoMedia, MediaMarket) EVENTS Metro 2006 in numbers The Metro International annual report offered more than the first profit ($13m) for the company. Total revenues Bonn: IJP allumni conference inceased to $416m. There are 1,500 people working for On Septmber 7 I will participate in a forum discussion on Metro, more than 500 of them journalists. Daily readership free dailies and their consequences on journalism. The is more than 20 million while the paper is published in conference of the International Journalists’ Programmes more than 100 cities. is held in the Villa Hammerschmidt in Bonn. More information on www.ijp.org. Profits were good in Sweden and the Netherlands while Southern Europe reached break-even. Also the Cardiff: the future of newspapers operations in Canada and Korea contributed to the profits. On September 13 I will present a paper at the conference US, Portugal, Italy and the Czech Republic are losing ‘The future of newspapers’, which is held at the Cardiff money. University in Wales (UK). Additional information on www.cardiff.ac.uk. Metro published 77 ‘other’ products, mainly monthly and weekly magazines. 51% of the readers are female, 44% is under 34. The Metro Life Panel has 20,000 members. Amsterdam: world editor/marketeer The 10th World Editor & Marketeer Conference and Expo

in Amsterdam, to be held 18-19 October I will give a Metro’s Q2 2007 results presentation on the competition that is caused by the Sales have been growing for Metro in Q2 and the first half launch of free newspapers, the business opportunities year but compared to 2006 results are not impressive. In and the risks of market entry. real terms (including the Borstad weekly in Sweden, Poland closure and Finland sale) sales growth was 4.5% New Job in Q2 but the operating profit was $4.6m (2006: $6.5m). Since September 1, I have a new job as professor Cross Reduced margins in Sweden, France and Denmark and Media Content at the Research Centre for investments in the US and online were responsible. Also Communication & Journalism at the Hogeschool Utrecht. subsidiary operations contributed less. Because I will be affiliated to the University of Amsterdam

as well, e-mail and website will stay the same. The first half year results in sales are flat “due to the decline in Bostad and Sweden’s Metro”. For the first 6 months an operating loss of $6.9m is reported against a WEBSITE UPDATE: JAPAN profit of $2.6m in 2006. In Japan a free daily was Per Mikael Jensen new Metro CEO briefly published in Tokio in Pelle Törnbergs successor at Metro International is Per 2002, but Headline Today Mikael Jensen. On November 1 he will take over and soon reverted to a weekly. work from London instead of Stockholm, to emphasize the Apparently there is another international character of the company. Jensen worked for free daily published in one of Danish newspapers Politiken and Jyllands Posten, and the largest newspaper became director of the Danish public TV channel TV2in markets of the world. World spring 2006. Before going back to Denmark he worked for Press Trends had the title Metro International as vice president and chief-editor of all but a reader from Japan editions. In 2001 he joined Metro as editor in chief of the provided the details. new Danish Metro edition. In the northern part of the country, in Kitami city on the Schibsted in numbers: 2006 island of Hokkaido, Keizai no Schibsteds annual report showed the 20 Minutes concept Densho-bato started in 1983 as a free weekly. It changed moving towards break-even. After a loss of €7m in 2005, to a daily in 1987 and is published six days a week. It has 2006 showed a €3m loss. Revenues were €62m in that an audited circulation of 85,000 - reaching almost 90% of year. The number of employees increased from 260 to the population. The evening paper is home delivered. A 347. Both the 20 Minutes operations in France and Spain link to the home page is on the Asia > Japan page. showed an increase in revenue. Other free operations include Punkt SE in Sweden, 15min in Lithuania and the free weekly Moi Rayon in Russia. Questions & suggestions: [email protected] web: www.newspaperinnovation.com

FDN Newsletter no. 28 - September 2007 – page 5 of 5