Sixth free daily for Portugal
Publishing group Controlinveste (Diario de Notícias, Jornal de Notícias, 24 Horas and O Jogo) will launch a new free daily: Global Notícias in September of this year. The paper will count 24 pages and will have a circulation of 150,000. The paper will be available in Lisbon first, by home delivery and in public places. A Porto edition is expected in 2008. Hugo Correia Pires, administrator of the group, said that he hopes taht readers will eventually move to a paid daily later. (Publicitas)
The new paper will be the sixth free daily in Portugal after Destak (Cofina, 2004), Metro (2005), OJE (2006), Diário Desportivo and Meia Hora (both 2007). Total free circulation is now more than 550,000. Total paid circulation in 2006 was 620,000 meaning that with the new title there will be more free than paid circulation in Portugal. Transferring readers from free to paid, however, has never been shown in the - so far short - history of free daily newspapers.