Newspaper Innovation

In the webcast on the 2006 results Metro not only presented the first profit but also news on several countries. Sweden is performing very well but there is still a large issue with the Swedish tax office. Because Metro is counted as a non-newspaper (8% tax) instead of a newspaper (3% tax), the company deducts distribution costs. The tax office, however, does not allow Metro to do that. Metro is appealing the decision in Stockholm but also in the European courts. It could amount to €11m.
Denmark, Portugal and Holland performed very well, Spain and Italy were still disappointing. Good news for Italy however, because there is a good chance that there will be a national readership audit for all newspapers in Q1. There are ambitious plans (but no promises) for the US: profits for 2007 – meaning profitis in Boston and Philadelphia will be more than the losses in New York. Metro decided not to sell Poland but close it down because selling would close the possibility of re-opening in the future.

Future launch policy will be carefull, Metro is thinking about new markets, with either franchises, minorty shares or controling interests; but maintaining profitablity is the ground rule. But at the same time the company was ‘not impressed’ by any new competitors in Sweden, Denmark, France or Holland.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 13th, 2007 at 3:47 pm and is filed under Publishers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.