Metro International announced that Publimetro, their Mexican edition, is launching a bi-weekly free sports newspaper in Mexico City. Publisport will have a circulation of 40,000 copies and will be hand delivered Monday and Friday.
The free sports newspaper, called Publisport, will be launched together with Metro’s local partners Inmobiliaria Torraco and MX Shares. Metro holds a 49% stake in the Mexican operation. (MarketWire)
Metro Brazil is launching a new edition in Campinas, a city of approximately two million people, located 90 kilometres from Sao Paulo. The new edition will have an initial distribution of 30,000 daily copies.
In 2007 Metro launched in Sao Paolo, in 2009 editions for the ABC area (Greater São Paulo: Santo André, São Bernardo do Campo, São Caetano do Sul) and Santos were added.
The Brazil Metro is majority (70%) owned by the Bandeirantes group. Metro’s total circulation in Brazil now amounts to 240,000 daily copies.
The pdf version of the new Nice edition is no online at 20minutes.fr. The paper counted 16 pages, with page 2 and 3 devoted to local news.
With the launch of an edition of 20 Minutes, French Côte d’Azure town Nice now has three different free dailies. Metro operates a Nice edition since 2004 while Vincent Bolloré’s Direct group launched Direct Nice in December 2009.
The 20 Minutes edition is the 9th edition of the paper, and will distribute 35,000 copies daily in Nice. The staff consists of two local reporters, other content is provided by the Paris headquarters.(20 Minutes, Nice Premium)
(Unfortunately, the Nice editions is not yet available of the 20 Minutes website)
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.