Fiat (La Stampa) interested in Metro
According to Trend-Online, the Fiat publishing company Itedi (La Stampa) might be interested in acquiring a free daily. Reason is the growing advertising revenues for the new dailies. In the first six months of 2007 this was estimated at 62 million in Italy. The market, however, is quite crowded with three general papers: Metro, Leggo and City; a business paper (24 Minuti), a free sports daily (Sport24) and some local titles.
As La Stampa does not own their own free paper (they briefly published one in 2001 in Turin) the company is looking for other options. Leggo is owned by competitor Caltagirone, City by RSC (the Fiat family already owns 10% of that group). Remaining title Metro therefore seems the obvious choice.
Ad revenues might be rising, none of the Italian free dailies seems to make a profit so far. And as Metro International is not against selling papers (they sold Metro Finland in 2006) or minority shares and franchises, a sale could be possible.
Leggo is the free daily with the highest circulation in Italy (more than a million), City and Metro both distribute around 850,000 copies. The E Polis group has (temporary? – see previous post) stopped publishing. In 2006 Leggo had 2 million daily readers, City 1.7 million and Metro 1.65 million.