Newspaper Innovation

According to the last Austrian ÖAK audit, Kleine Zeitung has a circulation of 272,000, paid circulation of Österreich is 170,000 while OÖ Nachrichten has a circulation of 107,000. All three papers increased circulation in Q4 of 2007 compared to the same period in 2006. No other paper had an audited circulation of more than 100,000 in the last quarter of 2007.

Missing in the Q4 2007 audit are the two best-selling papers Kronen Zeitung and Kurier (joint circulation in 2006 one million), free dailies ‘heute’ and Die Neue while also the substantial free circulation of Österreich is not audited. (Publicitas newsletter)

Austria circulation data always were problematic. Halfway the nineties of the last century the two largest newspapers, Kronen Zeitung and Kurier, decided not to have their data audited. These two papers work together in Mediaprint, thereby controlling the majority of the (paid) Austrian newspaper market. They joined the Austrian Audit Bureau of Circulation (ÖAK) after a few years but left again in 2007.

The dispute now concerns the auditing of Österreich, the new paid / free model of publisher Wolfgang Fellner, launched in 2006. The new paper has a cheap subscription model and is also available for free in racks in major cities

Free papers were never included in the audit for dailies. The introduction of a half free / half paid model led Kronen and Kurier to leave ÖAK. Österreich was the first serious competitor for market leader Kronen Zeitung which might have caused the angry reaction. Both papers started their own auditing organization MAK (Medien Auflagen-Kontrolle). Free dailies are audited - more or less - by other organizations.

Without Kronen Zeitung and Kurier and without the unpaid circulation of Österreich (133,000), free dailies ‘heute’ (circulation around 450,000) and Die Neue (60,000) the ÖAK audit is almost useless. Less than half of the daily circulation is now audited by ÖAK.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 1:10 am and is filed under Circulation. 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.