Last German free daily closed
German quality newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung will close its ‘light’ edition, the SZ Primetime, because the company goes through another round of cost cuts. Four people will lose their job because of the cuts.
The A4-sized afternoon paper was launched in January 2007, and counted 12 to 16 pages. It was distributed with a circulation of 13,000 to Lufthansa business class travelers.
With this closure, the last remaining German free daily has vanished. Since 1997 ten free titles have been launched in Germany, some only lasted a few months, others more than 12 years, the others are:
- ICE-Press (Der Spiegel Verlag, IC-trains), 1997-1999
- Handelsblatt am Abend (Holtzbrinck, trains, airlines), 1997-2009
- 15 Uhr Aktuell (Berlin, Hamburg, Munich) 1998-2000
- 20 Minuten (Schibsted, Cologne), 1999-2001
- Köln Extra (Axel Springer, Cologne), 1999-2001
- Kölner Morgen (DuMont Schauberg, Cologne), 1999-2001
- FTD Kompakt (FT Deutschland, trains) 2003-2006
- Business News (Holtzbrinck) 2006-2007
- die Sportzeitung (DSV/Lufthansa, airlines) 2006-2007
With the last free daily in Germany closing, and with Lithuania and India losing their only free daily, the number of coun tries with free dailies dropped from 59 in 2008 to 56 in 2009.
October 15th, 2009 at 11:17 am
IC-Press is not the right name, it was ICE-Press. IC means Intercity, ICE means Intercity Express, wich is a complete other type of train. This ICE-paper was avaible in the ICE-trains, distributed via Print on demand…
October 21st, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Corrected it, thanks. Print on demand, probably ahead of its time.
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:04 pm
[...] This news comes two weeks after the Süddeutsche Zeitung decided to close their own in-flight afternoon paper SZ Primetime. This paper consisted of material taken from the mother paper as well. Earlier several other free German dailies were aimed at train or airplane travelers. All of them closed within a few years or even months (see previous post) [...]