Newspaper Innovation

The closure of Danish free daily Urban opened up an opportunity for Denmark’s only free daily publisher Metro International, owning the majority of the two remaining free dailies in the country: MetroXpress and 24timer.

In total Metro expects to win 75,000 to 100,000 readers in the future because of the closure of Urban according to MediaWatch.

Metro does not wanted to take 24timer from the market, but was considering to differentiate between the titles. 24timer could go down in distribution, making it more attractive for smaller advertisers while MetroXpress could increase its print run.

That is why MetroXpress has increased it’s circulation with 25,000 to 200,000 (MediaWatch).

Under the new ownership of commercial TV-channel TF1, Metro France plans to expand distribution in 2012 from 30 to 60 cities.

According to director Edouard Boccon-Gibod, this means that coverage in France wil rise from 68 to 90% of the country.

Circulation, however, will stay the same as the distribution in the existing markets will be lowered. (Ozap)

Metro is now distributed in 9 different daily editions with a total circulation of 770,000 copies. After 20 Minutes and DirectPlus it is the third free daily in the country.

Once, Denmark was free newspaper heaven (or hell, depending who you worked for), with 11 different titles in 2006 (total circulation 2 million) and a market share for free dailies of more than 60%.

In 2011, the situation is back to ‘normal’, with three titles, a total free circulation of 450,00 and a market share of 30%.

MetroXpress and 24timer, both majority owned  by Metro International, increased circulation in the first half of 2011 compared to 2010 – Berlingske owned Urban went down in circulation according to Dansk Oplagskontrol.

Circulation show a rather extreme picture (click for bigger version).

More newspaper statistics on http://krantenstatistiek.tumblr.com/

In 2011 circulation of free dailies in Denmark has gone up again to 450,000 – mainly because of a circulation rise of 24timer.

Also MetrXpress saw circulation increase. Both papers are majority owned by Metro International.

Berlingske’s free daily Urban dropped below the 100,000 mark in 2011.

After the flood of free papers in 2006 and the closures that followed, free circulation in Denmark is still higher than 10 years ago when free dailies were introduced. (click for bigger version)

After a decline in circulation in 2009, Asian circulation of free dailies was stable in 2010 and increased again in 2011. Main drivers of the increase were launches in Hong Kong, Thailand and India, and circulation increase in China.

There are now more than 30 titles published in a dozen countries. (click for bigger version.)

The number of countries on the American continent has increased to 12 over the last years after the introduction of free dailies in Guatemala and Peru. Also circulation is again rising after 2009.

The number of titles and editions, however, is lower in 2010 and 2011 than it was in 2009. (Click for bigger picture.)

In Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic circulation rises, while also new launches in Peru and Guatemala causes a rise in circulation. In Chile, Mexico and the US circulation drops.

The drop in titles and editions in 2010 is mainly caused by closures in the US and Mexico in those years.

In 2011 81 free dailies with 277 in 28 countries were published in Europe. Total circulation of these titles was around 19 million.

Compared to 2009 and 2010 only the number of titles and editions declined, suggesting that remaining titles have increased their circulation. Austria, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK saw circulation rise.

In 2011 so far three papers closed. Both free dailies in Macedonia and Adevarul de Seara (39 editions) in Romania. (Click on graph for bigger version.)

With a paid circulation in Europe of less than 90 million, the market share of free dailies in Europe is around 18%.

Andorra, Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland have a high (above average) market share of free dailies.

In 2011 there are 2.9 titles per country on average in Europe, in 2006 this was 4.6.

The circulation of free newspapers Heute and Österreich increased with 7% between 2010 and the first 6 months of 2011 according to the most recent ÖAK audit.

Heute increased circulation from 541,000 to 574,00 copies while the free circulation of Österreich grew from 222,000 to 248,000. Apart from that, Österreich also has a paid circulation of 137,000.

In Vienna Heute leads with 389,000 copies – meaning also bigger than Austria’s largest newspaper Kronen Zeitung (126,000 copies in Vienna). Österreich distributes 197,000 free copies in Vienna.

Austrian media website Unzensuriert (uncensored) reports that the political advertising in free dailies (and in Kronen Zeitung) will be officially investigated. Almost a third of the advertising in Heute comes from government and other political inspired sources.

This year, the minister for education already paid Österreich half a million Euro’s for advertising – Heute received € 264,000. (Die Presse)

In the battle between the two free dailies Heute hired two Österreich staff members: Wolfgang Höllrigl and Maria Jelenko-Benedikt. (Horizont)

Free daily 20 Minutos, until 2008 the best-read Spanish newspaper, lost readers again according to the last AIMC / EGM research. The paper had 2,171,000 readers in 2010/2011.

Sports paper Marca is again the best-read paper with almost 3 million readers. Also El País gained some readers.

The two other free dailies, Qué! and ADN both lost readers. Qué! is now 5th (after sports paper AS) with 1.4 million readers while ADN is 7th (1,064,00 readers) after El Mundo.

(Click on graph to enlarge – the 2011 data are from  Oct 2010 – May 2011; other data are from February-November.)

In the first three months of 2011 Dutch free circulation was stable at 1.2 million copies.

Free daily De Pers, however, increased it circulation with 34 percent to 289,000 (compared to Q1 2010). The paper is owned by millionaire Marcel Boekhoorn – distribution, printing and ad-sales is done by Wegener, part of the Mecom group.

Metro cut circulation with 7 percent to 481,ooo but is still the free paper with the highest circulation in the country.

Spits (TMG) went down 8 percent to 391,000 compared to Q1 2010.