Background on Styria
Austrian media website Medianet ran a story last week on Graz publisher Styria. The company publishes paid dailies Kleine Zeitung and Die Presse in the home market, but is also operating in the Eastern-European markets Croatia and Slovenia.
German-language publishers have ‘invaded’ Eastern Europe since the nineties. The most important players being WAZ and Springer from Germany and Swiss publisher Ringier. Apart from that, also Styria, Vorarlberger Nachrichten (Austria), Rheinische Post, Passauer Neue Presse (Germany), and Edipresse (Switzerland) are active in Eastern Europe.
Styria’s main non-Austrian activities are in Croatia and Slovenia were they publish paid and free dailies. Almost a quarter of Styria’s revenues is now coming from these international operations.
In Croatia Styria launched 24 Sata (24 hours) in 2005, a inexpensive morning paper and owns paid Vecernji List - meaning no. 1 and 2 in the paid market. To counter free daily Metro (franchise from Metro International, operated by WAZ and a local publisher) Styria also launched a free evening edition of 24 Sata with a circulation of 60,000. The free paper did not hurt sales of the paid edition according to the publisher.
In Slovenia Styria launched zurnal24, a free daily spin-off from weekly Zurnal. The daily, launched in September 2007 has a circulation of 103,000 which makes it the most-circulated newspaper in the country. Styria also holds part of paid paper Dnevnik.
The company, however, seems to be more successful abroad with free dailies than in the home market. In 2006 they launched free dailies OK Graz and OK Kärnten but closed both operations a year later.