Two free titles closed in Germany
Germany has survived the second attack of free dailies that begun in 2006. Business News, the free business paper by Holtzbrinck (Handelsblatt) is published this week for the last time. The paper started in August 2006 as the successor of the cheap tabloid News, and had a circulation of 110,000 in the beginning of this year. It was delivered to more than a hundred businesses. Lack of advertising income was the main reason for the closure. The BusinessNews website however will carry on.
In April the free sports paper Sportzeitung closed down. This paper was available on Lufthansa flights and had a circulation of 13,000. Also in this case lack of advertising caused the problems. In 1999-2001 the Norwegian publisher Schibsted tried to introduce the 20 Minutes concept in Cologne but was forced from the market after Alex Springer and a local publisher launched competing free papers of their own. Three small free dailies remain: Süddeutsche Zeitung Primetime, Handelsblatt am Abend, FTD Kompakt; all of them distributed on Lufthansa flights or ICE trains. Also a part of the circulation of Welt Kompakt is distruted for free ion trains. Combined circulation of these titles is less than 60,000.
Source: Borse-online (FTD)