To promote the launch of the new Gangsterboys movie in the Netherlands, free daily Spits not only contained a front page ad for the movie and the full back page, but also had five (fake) bullet holes on the front page. Two in the Spits logo, one in the ad and two at the bottom of the page.
I have seen free papers with holes, with wraps, with half wraps, with inserts, with pages sticking out, with stickers, with musical chips, with soap glued inside… but I never saw a free paper with a condom inside.
Free Mozambique weekly Verdade was (probably?) the first to do so. In their edition from last week a condom was glued inside the paper, much to the surprise of the readers.
The distribution took place in cooperation with DKT, an NGO which carries out awareness of the importance of using condoms in all sexual relations.
The picture left (click to enlarge) is from the Facebook website of Verdade. Two dozen pictures of the condom action are posted there. (You have to make friends with Verdade first to view them – but it’s worth it.)
Verdade also operates a YouTube channel (VerdadeTruth) with mostly videos of the distribution of the paper. Great movies of eager readers in Mozambique as you can see on this sample.
On February 26, Metro Belgium will distribute another issue of their Fashion deluxe magazine (click for enlargement). The magazine will be distributed together with the daily newspaper of that morning, which will also be printed on glossy paper for the occasion.
The focus is on the new spring and summer fashion collection, design, and Belgium designers.
Both the paper and the magazine are distributed in two versions; a green French language edition and a blue Dutch language version. Total circulation of the magazine is 290,000.
Metro International will introduce a new travel section, called “Metro Travel” that will be featured in several different Metro editions; first in Europe, but it is expected to roll out in non-European editions later.
The section will be produced by the central editorial office in London and is expected to attract international advertising for travel related subjects as well. (MediaWatch)
Singapore online news website TheOnlineCitizen contained an interesting piece on the free dailies in the country last week.
It mainly commented on the number of cover wraps Today and MePaper use. Today leads in that area:
“From 3 to 24 December, 12 out of 16 weekday day issues carried a full-page advert on its front cover. Over the same period of time, My Paper did the same for 7 out of 16 issues.”
The blog post also contained an interesting graph on the percentage of ads in both free papers. Today, in particular, is doing quite well in terms of ad-share with often more than 60% of its space devoted to ads.
Although the authors are quite negative about the number of wraps (”whoring out the front page”) and the high percentage of ads (”where’s the news?”), some commenters think otherwise.
(I think that wraps are good for revenues, but bad for picking up papers. I have the distinct feeling – based on observation only) that free dailies with cover wraps in boxes or racks are picked up less than papers with ‘real’ front pages.)
Right Today’s front page of Monday 11 January (click for enlargement)… with a wrap of course.
In December Google started with a massive advertising campaign for their own Internet browser Chrome.
The ads run on billboards in larger cities but also in paid and free newspapers in at least three countries: the UK, the Netherlands and France.
The free newspapers usually had wraps advertising Chrome.
In the UK Metro contained the first ad in December, in the Netherlands both Metro (see previous post) and Spits had Chrome ads in December and January.
In France 20 Minutes (left, click fro enlargement) had a cover wrap last week.
The Austrian government (national & local) and other bodies funded by the government, hand out millions of Euro’s each year in the form of advertising contracts. This is not that special in itself, as all governments do this, and most treat media on an equal basis. But in Austria some newspapers seem to be more equal than others.
Paid market leader Kronen Zeitung started the discussion by accusing Austrian Railways of sponsoring Kronen’s paid/free competitor Österreich. In 2009 alone the paper got ads worth €900.000.
Österreich struck back and said Kronen received more than €100 million in the last years, while free daily Heute (connected to Kronen through family ties) received a further €30 million.
An APA research made it that Kronen, Österreich and Heute get much more than non-Viennese boulevard newspapers. Styria (Graz) CEO Horst Pirker, also chairman of the Austrian publishers, even talks about a system that “looks like” corruption.
Local publishers have issued a joint complaint because this ‘unequal’ treatment.
Biggest spenders are the national government, some state departments, Austrian Rail, Vienna local transport, the Vienna airport, local Vienna government, and the ‘landes’ (provincial) government.
The Austrian Rail ads in Heute and Österreich, however, are mostly part of the barter contract on distribution in trains.
In January 2009 Metro International closed down their operation in Spain after almost 8 years. Now, the publisher closed a deal with its former main competitor 20 Minutos (Schibsted) for pan-European advertising.
Metro already had a contract with the Belgium Metro (Concentra group) since 2006, the existing deal with Metro UK (Associated Newspapers) is upgraded to an exclusive contract to sell international advertising.
With partners, Metro claims a circulation of 10.3 million and a readership of 24 million. In Europe the combinations says it reaches “19.0 million urbanites in 146 major European cities in 15 European countries”. (Metro Press release)
(Click on the picture for better view.)
Two of the major publishing groups in The San Francisco Bay area, Philip Anschulz’ Clarity Media and Dean Singleton’s MediaNews are combining their powers and offering joint advertising packages to businesses.
Clarity Media owns free daily The San Francisco Examiner while NewsMedia owns, among other papers (San Jose Mercury News, the Contra Costa Time, the Oakland Tribune), the free Daily News.
The combination has now a larger circulation than the San Francisco Chronicle. (MediaBistro)