Newspaper Innovation

Free daily Adevarul de Seara is the free evening spin-off from Romanian paid morning paper Adevarul which was acquired some years ago by Dinu Patriciu, probably the richest Romanian at this moment, who is said to have a fortune of approx. €2 billion.

It started with seven editions in October 2008: Bucharest, Arad, Timisoara, Iasi, Cluj-Napoca, Bacau and Oradea. Each local edition has its own staff and also has its own frontpage.

In December 2008 seven more editions were added: Ploiesti, Resita, Deva-Hunedoara, Suceava, Botosani, Targu Mures and Baia Mare. [in the first version of the post it said that the first 14 editions were launched in 2009 - it should have been 2008, see also the comment below].

In 2009 18 new editions were launched between February and September: Craiova, Targu Jiu, Brasov, Sibiu, Bistriţa, Constanta, Râmnicu Vâlcea, Drobeta Tr. Severin, Alba Iulia, Braila, Buzau, Focsani, Galati, Piatra Neamt, Pitesti, Satu Mare, Slatina and Targoviste.

Launching 32 local editions of a free daily within one year is something no other paper has been doing in the past.

Total (BRAT) audited circulation of the paper was 465,000 at the end of 2009. All editions can be downloaded from Adevarul website.

Welt Aktuell, the free paper distributed to airline passengers in Germany, debuted on January 4. The paper is handed out to all Lufthansa passengers (business and economy) on domestic flights in Germany after 16:00 each weekday afternoon.

The paper counts 12 tabloid pages. Content comes mostly from other Axel Springer papers like Die Welt, Welt am Sonntag and Welt Kompakt. Circulation is 30,000.

Since the closure of airline paper Süddeutsche Zeitung Primetime (also an afternoon paper for Lufthansa passengers), Germany was without free papers; earlier in 2009 the free train/plane Handelsblatt am Abend (Holtzbrinck group, Handelsblatt) closed down.

Before that there were other (unsuccessful) train/plane papers like die Sportzeitung (2006-2007, also in cooperation with Lufthansa), FTD Kompakt (Financial Times Deutschland, 2003-2006) and ICE-Press (Der Spiegel, 1997-1999).

This morning the first issue of the free merged Irish daily Metro Herald was distributed. Circulation is around 70.000. (click to enlarge picture)

The last issues of Metro (Associated Newspapers, the Irish Times, Metro International) and Herald AM (Independent News & Media) were published on December 22.

Metro International pulled out of the operation, which is now jointly owned by Associated Newspapers, the Irish Times and Independent News & Media.

Both Metro and Herald AM were launched in October 2005, but neither of the titles could make a profit in the crowded Dublin market. With half the circulation and without competition from another free daily, chances are better now.

Although Spanish free papers suffered heavily because of the recession (Metro and several local papers closed down in 2009, free circulation dropped from 3.8 to 2.5 million), already in 2008 a new local paper was launched in Madrid.

El Telégrafo, was launched as a monthly in 1997, went weekly in 2004 and moved in May 2008 to a four-days-a-week (Tuesday-Friday) schedule.

The paper has a circulation of 9,000 copies except on Friday when it distributes 15,000 copies in 21 municipalities in the area northwest of Madrid.

Publisher is Keril Inmo SL (Las Rozas, Madrid). The paper usually counts 32 pages. (AEPG)

The first issue of the latest Direct free newspaper in Strasbourg is now also online as a pdf-download on the Direct webiste (click for bigger picture).

The Monday 22 December issue is the only issue so far. As French free dailies usually close down during the Christmas holidays, the 2nd issue won’t be expected before January 4.

Other Direct papers owned by the Bolloré group are published in Paris, Montpellier, Nantes and Nice. They cooperate with locally owned Direct/Plus papers in Toulouse, Bordeaux, Marseille, Lille and Lyon.

Bolloré also owns a free evening paper in Paris (Direct Matin), a free sports weekly Direct Sport and commercial TV channel Direct8.

Today the sixth edition of Vincent Bolloré’s free daily Direct Plus is launched in Strasbourg. The paper is distributed with a circulation of 30,000 in the morning. (Le JDD)

Earlier Bolloré’s group launched evening paper Direct Soir in Paris (2006) and a morning edition in the capital a year later; in 2007 Direct Nantes was launched, in 2009 Direct Toulouse and Direct Nice. Total circulation of these titles is around 1.3 million.

The Bolloré Direct Plus papers collaborate with free ‘Plus’ papers in Marseille, Lille, Lyon, Bordeaux and Montpellier. These titles have a joint circulation of 240,000.

Free dailies 20 Minutes (26,000 copies) and Metro (15,000 copies) publish editions in Strasbourg since 2005.

The Bolloré / Plus combination has the same circulation as Metro and 20 Minutes combined in the whole of France.

Israeli free paper Israel Hayom (Israel Today) launched a weekend edition on November 20. The weekend circulation is 100,000 copies, which are distributed to home subscribers. The weekday edition of the paper has a circulation of 255,000.

The weekend edition contains a political and a cultural magazine apart from the regular paper. An ePaper version is available on the website.

The paper was founded in 2007, is distributed nationally in Israel.

Apart from Primera Hora and El Diario de Caracas (both launched in 2005) a third free daily appeared in the Venezuelan capital Caracas on August 8: Cuidad CCS (revolución a diario). Publisher is the Caracas municipal government.

Circulation is around 20,000, while the paper is distributed 7 days a week. The issue left (no. 114) is from Sunday November 2009.

The paper generally counts 16 or 20 pages (very few with ads) and can be viewed online with a smart ‘Issuu’ ePaper application.

The word ‘Gratis’ is depicted prominently on the front page, with a text under it asking to call a telephone number if someone tries to sell the paper.

More interesting, however, is page 3.

“El Presidente” of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, gets a whole page (click for bigger view) to speak to the readers of CCS, while also on other pages it is quite clear that CCS is pro-government.

Chavez has a long-standing conflict with most privately owned media in Venezuela, but mostly with radio and TV stations as these media are used most by the population.

In August some TV and radio stations were closed down, according to the government because of violation of their licenses, but according to opposition sources because of their anti-Chavez editorial line. In the same month also a new ‘media crimes’ law was proposed.

In 2007 Chavez decided not to renew the license of RCTV, a TV station that supported the 2002 coup against Chavez.

The battle apparently has moved to (free) newspapers as well.

The manifesto that was presented at launch stated that the paper stood for: “ethical journalism, popular, responsible, activist and revolutionary truth, to accompany the people in the pursuit of their political emancipation, economic, social and cultural development”. (thanks to ABYZ Newslinks)

With a change of ownership of Malaysian newspaper The Malay Mail (launched in 1896), the paper was converted from a paid to a free model on Friday November 27.

The circulation of The Malay Mail will be 100,000. The paper is distributed in the afternoon.

According to Adiomagazine, media company Redberry, owned by businessmen Datuk Mohamed Al-Amin Abdul Majid and Datuk Siew Ka Wei bought a stake of 75% in Malay Mail Sdn Bhd. The remaining 25% is acquired by Datuk Ibrahim Mohamad Nor.

The paper has a debt of more than RM11 (€2.1m). Former owner was Media Prima, a company connected to the New Straits Times.

Redberry (weird website!) has the advertising rights for the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, major highways, Kuala Lumpur’s buses, and in supermarkets. This makes distribution of a free daily a logical step.

In Malaysia free daily theSun converted from a paid to a free paper in 2002.

(The news of this launch was the result of a Twitter search)

Last Friday afternoon, November 20, the first – beta – version of the Blogpaper was distributed in London.

The free paper is only filled with stories and photo’s of bloggers, who can upload their stories to the Blogpaper website. Readers can discuss and rate stories, the stories with the highest ratings are then printed in the paper version.

These ratings can be seen next to the headings of the articles in the Blogpaper. The website contains a ePaper version.

There are some ads in the Blogpaper, but bloggers are not paid.

The Blogpaper wants to develop into a free weekly, but as the current issue was only a beta version, it is not yet known when the next issue will be published.