Newspaper Innovation

Luxembourg, one of the smallest countries in Europe, with less than 500,000 inhabitants, of which 80,000 live in the capital, now has two free dailies. Both newspapers are published in French, actually the minority language in newspapers.

In October 2007 L’Essentiel was launched by Edita (Das Tageblatt) and Swiss publisher Tamedia (20 Minuten). Point24, the second free daily by publisher Saint Paul was launched in November 2007.

The paper counts 32 pages and claims a ciruclation of 60,000; equal to that of competitor L’Essentiel. Also distribution is rather similar, concentrating on public transport.

Publisher Saint-Paul, controlled by the Catholic Church in Luxembourg, also owns leading daily Luxemburger Wort, French language daily La Voix du Luxembourg, radio stations, magazines and bookshops.

Last week we mentioned the first anniversary of City in Korean capital Seoul and the birth of the 8th free daily in that city: Sport Dong-A. This last title was the 8th published in that city. Sport Dong-A has a website on which the pdf can be read and downloaded.

Unlike European sports papers, Sport Dong- A is much more a general paper. It counts 28 pages, most of them in color, while also music, culture, show business and general news is covered. Two pages are devoted to comics while there are is also a horoscope, puzzles, TV-listings etc. Circulation, however, is unclear. (more…)

Seoul free afternoon paper celebrated its first year in business last week. The City was the first afternoon paper in the very crowded Seoul market and has a circulation of 400,000. Total circulation of free papers in Seoul is around 2 million.

Metro started in 2002 and was followed  in 2003 by Daily Focus and AM7 and in 2004 by Daily Zoom, Sports Hankook and Good Morning Seoul. The last title folded after a year but in 2006 Daily NoCutNews was launched while The City and economic paper IlIlKyungJe followed one year later. IlIlKyungJe closed down after some months.

In March, however, a 8th paper started, free sports daily Sport Dong-A.

The City is targeting a somewhat different audience because of its afternoon distribution. The paper is meant to be taken to the home and read by several family members.

The new free Dutch business paper De Financiële Pers by free daily De Pers and business platform IEX.nl was a two-days test run only. An editorial in the 25 April edition made this clear.

When the audience reactions are good and advertisers are also positive it will be launched ‘for real’ later. The circulation was 25,000. The paper was distributed in business centers in the Netherlands.

According to the editorial De Pers ‘can’t wait’ to start with the financial paper, that will compete with paid Financieele Dagblad. The new title already a has a domain www.definancielepers.nl although you’ll end up at the website of De Pers.

Free daily De Pers launched a business daily spin-off today: De Financiële Pers. The paper is handed out in business centers in major cities.

The new free daily is a joint venture between De Pers and Internet business platform IEX.nl. The first issue counted 32 pages. Circulation is not yet known. De Pers was launched in January 2007.

After Metro, Spits, De Pers and DAG, De Financiële Pers is the fifth national free daily in the Netherlands.

Monday 21 April a second free daily launched in the Romanian capital Bucharest. Ring is distributed in 50,000 copies by street distribution and at subway entrances. It is the fourth title in the country.

The new compact paper counts 16 pages and covers politics, show-biz and sports with an emphasis on the last subjects, according to the ‘media details‘ blog, one of the best sources on media developments in Eastern Europe. (more…)

A second free daily in Baltimore, simply called ‘b’, will launch today. The youth oriented daily is published by paid paper the Baltmore Sun and will have an initial circulation of 50,000. Circulation is expected to grow to 75,000 in September and even to 100,000 at the end of the year.

The paper will be available at 2500 distribution points, including 1000 to 1600 boxes, at retail outlets, on campuses and in restaurants, bars, gyms and coffee shops.

Every day b will have a section devoted to a particular theme like money, health, home decoration, music and movies. (more…)

Last month Thailand joined the group of countries with free newspapers after Daily Xpress was launched in the beginning of March. The new tabloid is published by paid newspaper The Nation.

With a circulation of 100,000 the paper will be the English language paper with the highest circulation in Thailand. Xpress is designed by Mario Garcia. (more…)

On April 7 the third free daily in the Ukraine, Vecherkom, was launched in capital Kiev. Vecherkom is an eight page afternoon paper with a circulation of 80,000. The first issue (12 pages) was handed out by a team of 100 distributors.

In the Ukraine also two morning free dailies are published: 15 Minut by KP Media and Obzor (by Dutch owned Telegraaf Media Group). The first is published in six editions with a circulation of more than 250,000 while Obzor has a similar circulation as Vecherkom in Kiev. (more…)

Pelle Anderson, one of the founding fathers of Metro Stockholm in 1995, participated in the launch of the free daily GASTE (related to Gazette: newspaper) in Istanbul on February 11. The paper has a print run of 500,000 which made it the market leader in the city overnight.

Publisher is Free News of which Anderson is CEO. From the website the pdf’s of all editions so far can be downloaded - in nr. 1 (February 11) GASTE and Anderson are presenting themselves.

The new paper is printed in tabloid - most newspapers in Turkey are still broadsheet - and counts 28 to 32 pages in full color. It already claims more than 50% of the readership in Istanbul.

(more…)

A fourth Israeli free daily, Yom Hadash (New Day), was launched last Thursday. The paper counts 16 pages and will be distributed from Sunday to Thursday. Israeli paid newspaper Haaretz describes it as an ultra-Orthodox newspaper that is competing with other (paid) ultra-Orthodox papers Yated Ne’eman and Hamodia.

Haaretz claims the launch is reflecting a struggle for leadership in the ultra-Orthodox Lithuanian Jewish community. All details, including the throwing of a yoghurt cup that sparked the conflict off, can be read in Haaretz. Investors in the paper and journalists working for it are still anonymous. (more…)

DNews, a free daily with a total circulation of 500,000 launched 25 February in Rome, Milan, Bergamo and Verona. Director is Antonio Cipriani, formerly of the E Polis free/paid paper.

After Leggo, Metro, City and E Polis DNews is the fifth general free daily in Italy. Also a free business daily 24 Minuti, is published.

Today’s issue counted 48 pages which makes it look more like the E Polis model than the other free papers.

The Salt Lake City Tribune launched a free afternoon daily on February 1, called The Buzz. The new paper is aimed at the younger reader that the paid paper is no longer reaching.

The paper will be distributed Monday through Friday in and around downtown Salt Lake City between 3:30 and 6 p.m. The Buzz has a editorial staff of no more than four people. (Free-daily.com)

Fear of cannibalism probably lead to the rather difficult afternoon model. The circulation of the new paper is not known.

Metro and Transcontinental will launch a Halifax edition next Thursday (February 14). The new commuter daily with a circulation of 25,000 will be the successor of the money-losing Halifax Daily News that closed Monday February 11.

The website of the Halifax Daily News already carries the Metro masthead. The edition is the seventh Canadian edition after Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, and Edmonton. (Canadian Press)

The way the switch from the Daily News to Metro was handled, however, was criticized (Follow the Media).

Jerusalem Post reports that a new free daily, 24 Minutes by paid paper Yediot Ahronot has been launched January 1. With this launch the number of Israeli free dailies has returned to three after the closure of Israeli in November of 2007. Also Israel Today and afternoon free paper Metro are published in Israel.

The new title is more or less the successor of the closed down free daily Israel. The morning edition will look like the closed down paper, the afternoon edition will have a new “24 minutes” look.

Globes reported that the new paper was distributed within railway station with permission of Israeli Railways and that distributors were removed from the stations. Content is taken from Yediot’s website Ynet. Israel Today secured the rail distribution contract after the closure of Israeli.

In Switzerland the market share of free papers is more than 45%, with five national titles in the German speaking part (three morning papers, one afternoon paper and a business papers) and two in the French speaking part. In Winterthur, North-East of Zurich, the paid weekly paper Das Stadtblatt moved also to free Sunday distribution in the beginning of this year.

Growing competiton from free dailies might have been one of the reasons for the switch, on Sunday there is also competition but only from paid papers.

The Stadblatt is very different from ‘regular’ free weeklies. It concentrates of opinion and discussion and not on news, editorial it is leaning towards the left,  it has long stories and is printed mostly in black and white.

Until the end of 2007, the paper was published on Thursdays and did cost three Swiss franks (almost two Euro’s). Publisher Guido Blumer hopes to break even in two to three years. The paper will home home delivered in 46,000 copies. (Persoenlich)

On December 10 2007 the first Indian free daily was launched in Chennai (formerly know as Madras), the fourth biggest city in India. The tabloid Ergo, has a page count of 16 and is published by Kasturi and Sons Ltd, also publisher of paid daily The Hindu and Sportstar. The print run of Ergo is 50,000 while there are a dozen people on the staff of the paper. Ergo is mainly distributed to the target audience: IT professionals in their twenties and thirties.

The publisher is also thinking about launching Ergo in other cities with a high number of IT-profressionals, like Bangalore and Hyderabad. India does have many community based free weeklies like City Plus, Downtown and Neighbourhood Flash, many of them with a substantial circulation. (Mint) (more…)

A new Italian free pdf paper Sera Quotidiano (evening paper) claims that they have a million readers. The paper that counts 20 pages is published by the Darwin Media Group in Verona.

The paper that started in in the beginning of December is published from Monday till Friday at 16.30. Readers can download it online of subscribe to it via e-mail or on their mobile phone.

Pdf’s have been introduced in 2006 on a worldwide scale (see previous post) but so far without too much success. One of the first efforts: FTpm (also launched as a print product) by the Financial Times was terminated within a few months in 2006. (more…)

In the last week of November, Spanish publisher Vocento launched a Santander (Cantabria) edition of their free daily Qué! The paper was bought by Vocento earlier this year from Recoletos; Santander is the second launch after San Sebastian after the acquisition.

The launch seems to be part of a strategy of Vocento to launch editions of their free paper in every market where they have a paid paper. In Santander Vocento publishes El Diario Montañés. This would mean that also editions for Vitoria, Valladolid and Granada can be expected.

In almost every major market in Spain several papers are published. For Santander this is the first free daily in town. It is the 16th edition of Qué!

On November 19 the free business paper E15 was launched in Prague. Circulation of the paper by publisher Mlada Fronta is 50,000. Distribution is directly to businesses, office centers, hotels, universities, and government buildings while it will also be available in trains and at the airport.

Mlada Fronta publishes more than 20 magazines in the Czech Republic, some of them also in the field of economics and business. E15 is competing with the Czech business daily Hospodarske Noviny, and several business weeklies. (Interfax)

In the Czech Republic also three free daily newspapers are published: Metro (Metro International), 24 Hodin (Swiss publisher Ringier) and Metropolitní Expres (German publisher Rheinische Post).