Newspaper Innovation

Today, the last edition of le 24 Heures de Gatineau was published in Gatineau-Ottawa, Canada. According to an announcement in la dernière édition of the French language edition of 24 Hours, the paper was forced to shutdown due to economic reasons. After a recent decision from the city council of Gatineau to limit the use of their newspaper distribution boxes, owner Sun Media Corporation decided to toss in the towel.

Le 24 Heures de Gatineau was launched in November 2006 in Gatineau, together with an English edition of 24 Hours in neighboring city Ottawa. Unlike the French edition, 24 Hours Ottawa is pretty successful and will continue to be published.

This morning I will talk at the CNA conference in Toronto ‘Ink & Beyound‘. I will stick to the ink and speak on ‘New Audiences / Revenue Streams - The Future of Free’.

Canada is - contrary to the US - a market with high competition of free dailies in all major markets. Metro has seven editions with a total circulation of more than 800,000 while the Quebecor/Sun free daily 24 hours/heures is available in six markets with a total circulation of 700,000. CanWest publishes Rush Hour in three markets.

Apart from that local titles and the lock-out paper Media Matin are published. Total circulation is around 1.7 million. Paid circulation is around 4.5 million.

Swiss local publisher AZ Medien has been planning a free daily in their area Aargau since the summer of last year. First plans were for last fall but the publisher has been postponing the launch already several times.

A Persoenlich interview today with publisher Peter Wanner suggested that the launch never will take place - at least not in 2008.

Wanner gives three reasons: the economy is not developing in the right direction, except 20 Minuten none of the Swiss free dailies is making a profit and they also have not won the hearts of advertisers and readers.

Wanner is also complaining about advertising rates that seem to be under pressure, although he’s not sure that free dailies - with substantial discounts - are responsible for that.

Seoul free afternoon paper celebrated its first year in business last week. The City was the first afternoon paper in the very crowded Seoul market and has a circulation of 400,000. Total circulation of free papers in Seoul is around 2 million.

Metro started in 2002 and was followed  in 2003 by Daily Focus and AM7 and in 2004 by Daily Zoom, Sports Hankook and Good Morning Seoul. The last title folded after a year but in 2006 Daily NoCutNews was launched while The City and economic paper IlIlKyungJe followed one year later. IlIlKyungJe closed down after some months.

In March, however, a 8th paper started, free sports daily Sport Dong-A.

The City is targeting a somewhat different audience because of its afternoon distribution. The paper is meant to be taken to the home and read by several family members.

Hollands youngest free daily DAG celebrates its first anniversary today. The paper was launched May 8 2007 and was the fourth national title in the country.

In the first year the paper lost its publisher, introduced a new design, moved closer to paid sister paper de Volkskrant and tried to reach a better educated target group.

The first year will be celebrated with a special ‘good news’ issue. Six pages will be devoted to ‘good news’.

Reuters reported today that a slight majority of newspapers editors think that newspapers will be free in the future because that’s the only way to compete with the internet. The report was conducted by Zogby International for the World Editors Forum and Reuters.

Repondents are more leaning to free than a year ago while Europeans are the moste careful: “56 percent of respondents believed that the majority of news, be it via print or online, would be free in the future. That was up from 48 percent who answered yes a year ago. Those leaning towards the free model mostly came from ‘emerging’ newspaper markets in areas such as South America, Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East and Asia where 61 percent of respondents believed news would be free. Respondents in Western Europe were less likely to believe in news becoming free, with 48 percent of news executives thinking it likely, while North American editors were on par with the average.”

By the way, the heading “Newspapers likely to be free in the future” is Reuters, not mine.

El País is the best-visited ‘general’ online newspaper in Spain. In March the paper had almost 2 million unique visitors. El País, however, is beaten by sports paper Marca with more than 2.3 million visitors.

The other three sports papers AS (1.2 million), Mundo Deportivo (646,000 visitors) and Sport (624,000 visitors) are 3rd, 4th and 5th.

The website of free daily 20 Minutos follows with 547,000 visitors. Other free dailies and paid daily El Mundo are not included in the research. (Publicitas newsletter)

What do people actually read in newspapers? News of course, but apart from that? Few people would admit they read horoscopes - although many do read them. Same for gossip. Some people admit they never skip the ‘obituaries & deaths’ section. Others go for the funnies.

When leading Swiss paid paper Blick went for an extreme makeover in March they decided there was not place left for Hagar the Terrible, a popular comic strip by then.

Free daily ‘.ch‘ bought the exclusive rights for Switzerland and will publish it from today on. (Persoenlich)

Within one year Global Notícias became the paper with the highest circulation in Portugal. The paper by Controlinveste (paid papers Diario de Notícias, Jornal de Notícias, 24 Horas and O Jogo) was launched in September 2007 had a circulation of 219,000 in the first two months of 2008.

Destak is second with 175,000 distributed copies while Metro follows with 173,000. Meia Hora distributes 76,000 copies and free business paper OJE 23,000.

Paid paper Jornal de Noticias is the best-circulated paid paper with 102,000 copies. (publicitas newsletter)

Publimetro Chile, subsidiary of Metro International SA, purchased 35% of SUBTV, as well as an option to acquire the remaining 65% in the future.

SUBTV delivers news, entertainment and information to subway commuters through television screens in stations and in train carriages in the capital Santiago. SUBTV was established 6 years ago, has 25 employees and reported a profit in 2007.

Robert Patterson, Executive Vice President of Metro International, stated: ‘there are significant synergies between Publimetro’s publishing business and SUBTV’s television business, since they are both targeting the same audience. In addition, the innovative transport system introduced in Santiago - Chile in early 2007 has doubled the number of passenger trips to 2.4 million per day and this has materially increased the attractiveness of SUBTV as an advertising medium’. (Metro press release)

Swiss leading free newspaper 20 Minuten distributed a free discount magazine today in the Zurich area. In the ’20’s best’ guide, readers can find offers for 26 products that can be obtained at a discount.

The circulation is 350,000 - but readers who cannot find a copy can download it from the special website an print the coupons. The guide can also be read as an e-paper. (Persoenlich)

After Murdoch’s News Corp. (New York Post, Wall Street Journal, local TV) and Mortimer Zuckerman (New York Daily News) (see previous), also Long Island firm Cablevision will be bidding for NY newspaper Newsday. In this sale free daily amNewYork is included.

Cablevision, owned by the Dolan family, is offering $650m - $70m more than both other bidders - for the Tribune owned company, although the sale would also include some estate and other assets. Cablevision operates cable, telecommunications and Internet businesses on Long Island, including cable and online news service News 12. (Chicago Tribune)

While Newsday is losing money, which all bidders see reduced because of synergy effects with their own operations, amNewYork is making a profit.

Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported already in March that the free/paid paper Österreich asked Norwegian publisher Schibsted to participate in the newspaper. Sverre Munck, responsible for the free dailies, declined the offer.

Österreich is now available in five different editions. Vienna and Oberösterreich (Linz, Wels, Steyr) were already available from the start. Now also editions for NiederOstereich (St. Pölten) and Salzburg are distributed. For the Salzburg area it’s the first free daily. A fifth edition is just called ‘regional’.

In April 2008, there are 234 free dailies published in 58 countries
worldwide. Total circulation is almost 45 million.

In the Newsletter:
- editorial on profitability
- launches in Thailand, the Netherlands, Romania, USA & Ukraine
- closures & plans in the USA
- audit quarrels in Austria and Canada
- circulation: France, Italy, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain
- readership: Spain, Portugal, Poland
- publishers: Tamedia, Quebecor, Murdoch, Metro, PCM, Edipresse, Adelson
- update: Macedonia & Colombia
- research: Korea, NewspaperNext, advertising

Mark Fletcher covered the free Hong Kong daily The Standard no less than three times this week on his the Australian Newsagency blog. He was not only impressed with the content but also with his distribution of the paper.

In his last entry Mark included a copy of a full page ad of the paper, celebrating its victory in readership and circulation over rival The South China Morning Post. Read the rest of this entry »

The bid of Rupert Murdoch’s News International for Newsday (including free daily amNewYork) from the Tribune Company is matched by Mortimer Zuckerman, owner of the New York Daily News.

Although the bid is also $580m, Zuckerman’s offer is expected to lead to less public resistance. A Murdoch takeover would also lead to more problems with antitrust legislation because of combined print/TV ownership. (ChainLinks)

All four Spanish national free dailies have more readers in the first report of 2008 (April 2007 - March 2008) than in previous periods. Most paid papers, however, also had more readers in the latest audit.

20 Minutos is still the best read paper in Spain with 2,685,000 readers (+ 7% compared to the previous audit). Paid sports paper Marca is second with 2,550,000 readers. Also Marca gained readers. Read the rest of this entry »

The March circulation data from Spain (by Publicitas and PRnoticias) revealed that free dailies still lead in circulation. El País is the paid paper with the highest circulation (460,000 daily copies). All four free national papers circulate more than that.

In March Qué! leads with 1,049,000 copies before ADN with 1,022,000. Best-read paper 20 Minutos distributes 980,000 copies while the circulation of Metro is 853,000. The growth in free circulation in Spain is gone, however. Indicating a focus more on readership and cutting costs.

Two of the bloggers I follow on a daily basis are in Hong Kong today. Guardian’s Roy Greenslade on his way to Australia and Australian Mark Fletcher visiting a Hong Kong gift fair.

Fletcher’s blog Australian Newsagency Blog reported on the good quality of Hong Kong’s latest addition to the free newspaper market, the formerly paid Standard. According to Flecher, the quality is so good that “I wouldn’t like to see a free newspaper like this in Australia.”

Greenslade is commenting on the elderly people that make a living by gathering discarded papers on the street. The price of old paper is high enough to make some money of it. Advertisers should be less pleased of course because some papers end up at the recycling center without ever being opened.

Via the Publicitas newsletter I got the latest US circulation data on the top 10 paid dailies. Not a very happy sight, with 8 out of 10 losing circulation in 2007/2008. Only the Wall Street Journal and USA Today saw their circulation increase. The list, however, also showed that the 10 most circulated dailies are not all paid dailies.

Wall Street Journal and USA Today are leading, followed by The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. Free daily The Examiner is the 5th although with roughly the same circulation as the New York Daily News, the New York Post, and the The Washington Post. Metro is the 9th paper in circulation, followed by the Chicago Tribune.