FDN NEWSLETTER NO. 5 – MARCH 2005 – WEBSITE: users.fmg.uva.nl/pbakker/freedailies

Launches: Spain, Canada Metro: Greater Madrid

On February 18 Metro launched their 8 th edition in Spain. The edition for Castilla la Mancha covers the area to the south and east of Madrid: Albacete, Toledo, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara. Free Circulation (*1000) In Spain 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 20 min 250 250 500 550 650 720 Metro says it has more than 15 million daily Metro 414 393 590 700 700 Que! 1000 readers. Some figures are a little too good: others 50 93 84 174 227 223 1,789,000 in the Netherlands (circulation total 300 757 977 1314 1577 2643 300,000), 1,248,00 in Hungary (in fact less than 700,000), 411,000 in Greece (daily Total circulation of free in Spain circulation less than 100,000) and 340,000 in reached the 2.5 million mark in 2005 and will Chile (287,000 according to the Metro grow when Ahora will be launched in April. website). Paid newspapers in Spain have a circulation of 4.2 million – a figure that has been quite stable There are no more than 400 journalists for the last 10 years. In 2004 the circulation working for Metro, with 45 editions this means increased because of promotion activities. less than 10 journalists for each edition. A more elaborate text on Metro with data on Vernon & Kelowna Daily editions launched (and closed down) and circulation for every country in the last ten Black Press Ltd. (British Columbia) years are on a new Metro-page on the website: started free dailies in Vernon (Vernon Morning users.fmg.uva.nl/pbakker/freedailies/metro.html Star Daily, circulation 3,300) and Kelowna (Kelowna Capital News Daily, circulation 5,500) on February 7, 2005. The paid papers of the company, Vernon Morning Star and Kelowna Capital News, are published three times a week. (Globe and Mail)

Black Press is the third Canadian free daily publisher after and Qubecor – but before CanWest.

10 years of metro Metro devoted no less than six pages Circulation & Readership: to their 10th anniversary on February 15. In three articles the new leader, Poland, UK, Sweden, (27), who took over the Kinnevik company when her father Jan Stenbeck died two years Agora - Springer - Metro ago, was interviewed and portrayed. Metro, Polish free daily by Agora (publisher of Gazeta Wyborcza), has reached Cristina Stenbeck wants the company to an average circulation of 269,000 in 2004. The become more transparent and showed concern newspaper group has seen profits rise with about the racism allegations. The affair 300%. Heavy competition with tabloid Fakt certainly has had impact on the company. (Alex Springer) is going on in Poland – Fakt

FDN Newsletter no. 5 - March 2005 – page 1 of 4 beat Gazeta Wyborcza on readership and 55,000 - 5000 more than the initial circulation. circulation but lags behind in advertising Combined with its free sister paper the revenue. Since November 2004 the Agora free Evening Standard increased its circulation paper is published in Warsaw, Bydgoszcz, with 16% - but the circulation of the paid Katowice, Krakow, Lublin, Lodz, Poznan, edition alone dropped with 11%. Metro Szczecin, Trojmiasto and Wroclaw. Metro circulation is 1,006,000. The winners were Agora started in 2001 as a weekly and moved tabloids the Independent and the Times. to daily distribution in 2003. Metropol (launched in 2000 in Warsaw) by Metro readership war International is published daily in the same cities since the fall of 2004. Total free paper Stockholm (Bonnier) beat Metro on circulation in Poland is more than 500,000. readership in November and December 2004 Total paid newspaper circulation is 3.5 million. with a margin of 3000 (506,000 against Metro: Circulation (*1000) Free Papers In Poland 503,000). Circulation for both papers is 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 ± 290,000. Metro fights back with 100 extra MTG 198 185 167 145 250 250 hawkers, trying to raise the circulation with Agora 150 274 269 20,000 to more than 300,000 on their 10th others 300 245 anniversary. Both papers publish thick Friday total 198 485 412 295 524 519 (weekend) editions, 48 pages for Metro and 64 for City. (www.dagensmedia.se / Metro / City) Leggo wins Italy

More than 1.7 million Italians a day read a free paper in 2004 - 100,000 more than in Publishers & Titles 2003. A million of these readers do not read paid newspapers while 41% is between 14 and Knight Ridder buys Priceless 34 (against 32% of the Italian population). Free newspapers readers are also better Knight Ridder bought five free local educated than the average Italian. Women daily papers (Palo Alto Daily News, San Mateo (45%) and students (19%) are well represented Daily News, Redwood City Daily News, in the free paper audience. Burlingame Daily News, Los Gatos Daily News) in the San Francisco area from Priceless Leggo (Caltagirone - ), LLC. Total circulation of the papers that were published in , , Padova, , founded in 1995 is 55,000. In January the CEO , , , and of the company already expressed interest in attracts 1,157,000 readers. City (RCS Media the free paper model. Knight Ridder operates Group - Corriere della Serra), distributed in more than 30 daily newspapers in the US. Milan, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples and , has 747,000 readers. Metro reaches Recoletos Results 626,000 readers in Milan and Rome. The Milan edition has recently extended to Lecco, Results of Recoletos (founders of free , Monza, Pavia, Lodi and Varese. daily Que!) have risen in 2004 12%, mainly (canali..it) because of more income from advertising. In The research by Euriska was only on free 2004 Recoletos launched newspapers and papers because the titles are not permitted to magazines in Spain and the US. take part in the general Audipress research (also by Eurisko). The readership data Socpresse sells however, make the circulation figures (1.8 million total) somewhat suspect: 626,000 Ouest-France, Schibsted's partner in 20 Metro readers means ± 1.5 readers for every Minutes France, bought three papers in the paper; for Leggo this is 1.4 and for City even western part of France from Socpresse 1.1. Circulation is probably lower than (Dassault). Socpresse newspapers in Lyon (Le reported by the companies. Progrès) and Lille (La Voix du Nord) are possibly also sold - these two titles publish free Standard down - Lite up papers Lyonplus and Lilleplus.

Standard Lite , the free afternoon paper Many profits but more losses by Associated Newspapers (Daily Mail, Evening Standard, Metro UK) got its first Metro International published the official ABC auditing figures in January 2005: 4th quarter and 2004 financial results on

FDN Newsletter no. 5 - March 2005 – page 2 of 4 February 15, 2005. Nine out of 16 country the strong competition between Destak and operations made a profit, for the last quarter Metro. Both papers started in December 2004 that was 12 out of 16. Net loss, however, is in the Portuguese capital. Destak wants to $11.4 million in 2004, against $7 million in attract "the young reader with purchasing 2003. power". (www.meiosepublicidade.pt) Investments in new launches were responsible for this result according to Pelle Törnberg. He 20 Minutes pays off expected that the deal with the New York Times Company will be completed within a Quote from Schibsted’s Preliminary Annual Results: ‘20 Minutes continues its month. (FT Deutschland, 15 Feb.) success, reporting an operating margin Metro launched in 2004 in Lisbon and New (EBITA) of 19% for the 4th quarter. Sales of York, extended the La Coruna and Milan 20 Minutes in Switzerland are expected to give editions to more cities, went national in Schibsted a profit of approx. NOK 200 million Sweden and Denmark, almost national in in Q1 2005’. Although the Spanish edition is Poland, launched a Rotterdam edition in the making money, 20 Minutes France is not. Netherlands, editions in Spain and France and Schibsted as a whole saw its results drop in a weekend edition in Thessaloniki. Two real 2004. (Schibsted / Le Figaro) estate papers started in Sweden. The cost of launching new editions is reflected A Qui ? in rising costs for headquarters (20 million loss). The 10% remaining shares of the A Nous Paris , distributed Mondays in Hungarian operation were bought in 2004. The Paris subways (RATP) and light rail (RER) for seven markets with losses for 2004 were free (circulation 400,000) is about to be sold probably Portugal, Italy, Finland, Prague, by 55% owner Publicis to Belgium publisher Poland, US and Canada. The US operation, Roularta. Comareg, owner of another 15% of with the loss-making New York edition, A Nous Paris launched Paru Vendu - a paper underwent a shakeup in personnel in February spin-off of the popular website for classified advertising, also wants to sell their share. according to the Boston Herald. Roularta, who owns already 30% of ANP and Webwar in Spain is printing the magazine, is since October 2004 also publishing the bi-weekly city magazines A 20 Minutos Spain revamped their Nous Lille and A Nous Lyon. In Belgium the website: more interaction, new features and company publishes a free daily in Brussels updated news. This action is inspired by the (Metro – in two different language editions) new Qué! website that had more interactive and several local dailies. Roularta is publishing features (blogs) than its competitors. city-guides like A Nous Lille and A Nous Lyon in Belgium (Steps) and the Netherlands (Style).

According to Alain Neuville’s newsletter, Metro might be a candidate for the deal. A Nous Paris is losing something like €1,000,000 each year.

The most valuable asset is their exclusive distribution deal with the public transport – something Metro and 20 Minutes lack. A Nous Paris was first published in a tabloid format The website has indeed improved much. The and newspaper design in 1999 but moved later photo-section has many good quality pictures to the magazine look. while the news is updated every hour and there is also much more room for discussions and No profits for 24 Hours/Heures readers’ articles. Qubecor shares have risen because the Destak vs. Metro drop in profits for Q4 2004 is lower than expected. Quebecor's two free dailies - 24 Destak (Lisbon) will use a new design Heures Montreal and 24 Hours Toronto do not from March 3 on, and will devote more space show a profit in 2004 but the revenue of the to sports, music and entertainment, a result of papers has gone up according to the company.

FDN Newsletter no. 5 - March 2005 – page 3 of 4 Spits fully digital participation of La Razon’s Luis Maria Anson. (El Mundo) On February 28, Dutch free newspaper Spits (De Telegraaf) launched a digital version City & Metro go for Leggo on their website with the look and feel of a ‘real’ paper newspaper. Turn pages on Digi City (2nd in Italy) wants to extend to other Spits with your mouse at: spitsnet.nl cities in 2005. Metro (3rd) will be distributed in , Turin, Padova, Verona, Florence and Bologna before May 2005. Circulation of Plans & Rumors: Italy, Metro Italy will grow from 525,000 to Germany, Russia, China, 900,000. So far, Leggo is the biggest free Switzerland, Canada, Spain paper in Italy. (canali.libero.it)

Metro: the next 10 years Site update Metro has plans for Germany, Russia and China according to The Plans Page Metro CEO Pelle Törnberg. The German plans are the most concrete, although neither date A new page is added with all planned and nor place was mentioned. (FT Deutschland, rumored free daily newspaper launches. Feb. 15) Also a Czech national edition and more editions in Italy, Spain and Canada are planned.

This town ain’t big enough…

Tamedia, publisher of 20 Minuten Swizerland wants to extend to Romandie (French speaking part of Switzerland: Lausanne, Geneva) and eastern Switzerland (St. Gallen) to reach 1 million readers within 2 years. Leading Romandie newspaper Le Matin (Edipresse) is waiting for them according to Mes Tarragona chief editor Peter Rothenbühler: "Wir stehen A 10th free newspaper in Gewehr bei Fuss" (we're ready with our guns). Spain was “discovered”: (www.persoenlich.com) Mes Tarragona launched in 2004 with a circulation Dose moved one month of 15,000. Publisher is Comunicación Efectiva CanWest will launch Dose in Toronto SL. The paper is a (120,000), Vancouver (80,000), Ottawa, member of the Catalan Edmonton, and Calgary (40,000 each) on April organization of Free 4, 2005. Dose will have an interactive website Papers ‘Premsa Gratuïta with online and wireless features like music Catalana’. (www.premsagratuita.com) downloads and links to games for mobile phones. Both Metro and Sun Media (24 Hours / 24 Heures) have plans for Vancouver. (Toronto Star / Globe and Mail) Research Links to two studies on the free press in Italy Ahora: first we take Madrid (2002 and 2004) and an IFRA Europe report from 2002 are added. Spanish afternoon paper Ahora will be launched in Madrid first week of April. Sevilla and two other cities in Andalusia will be next. Questions & Suggestions: Initial circulation will be 200,000. In two years mailto:[email protected] Ahora wants to grow to a 1,000,000 circulation in Spain. The paper eventually wants to move to a paid model. A spokesperson denied the

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