Newspaper Innovation

The Dutch Press Fund (Stimuleringsfonds voor de Pers) will include free dailies in their support policy. News media can apply for funds for special projects or research. Until now only paid publications could apply.

Next year the Fund will have €1m for support, from 2010 on this will be €2.3m a year. Minister Plasterk, responsible for media, will not take any general measures, like lowering taxes, which was asked for by publishers and the journalists union NVJ.

The minister is worried about commercial influences on the media, and will talk with the press how to deal with this on a voluntary basis. (VillaMedia)

In terms of commercial influences and independent reporting, however, free newspapers have a rather ’soft’ policy. Metro will have its ‘Blunt day’ this Monday (see previous post), the result of a marketing-deal with Warner Music, who pays for the one-day editor in chief.

Dutch free daily Spits has its TV-critic sponsored. Jan Dijkgraaf, former editor in chief of Metro, is now employed by Spits to write about TV while he is also available for marketing purposes.

What this means can be seen here: Dijkgraaf with thumbs-up dressed up with a Logitech t-shirt (click on pic for bigger Dijkgraaf).

Last Monday, in San Mateo (California, US) an employee of the San Francisco Examiner spotted a Daily Post delivery man removing copies of every publication except his employers from newspaper boxes.

The man had in his car hundreds of copies of the Examiner, Daily News and Daily Journal. The theft of 25 copies or more of free newspapers is prohibited by law in California. It is punishable by a fine of up to $250 for a first offense. (more…)

Almost 2 million Irish (56% of the 15+ population) read a paid newspaper on a daily basis, 1.8 million (51%) read a paid morning paper in the last surveyed period (July 2007-June 2008) according to the Joint National Readership Survey.

In the same period of 2006/2007 this was slightly less, meaning total weekday readership is rising.

Over a longer time span, the picture looks rather different for different titles. In general, tabloids like The Star, The Mirror, The Daily Mail and the Sun seem to be gaining readers - although the last title lost somewhat compared to the previous period. (more…)

German wholesale retailer Metro is thinking about suing free paper publisher Metro International after the successful lawsuit in Hungary.

In August (see previous post) the Hungarian Metro was forced to change its name to Metropol after the retailer argued successfully that the use of the ‘Metro’ brand was an infringement to its own right.

According to business website B2B Köln first options would be Italy and France.

Other contested markets could be Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Russia. Also Belgium, the UK and Poland where other publishers operate Metro papers could be affected. (more…)

Palo Alto city employees removed 27 Palo Alto Daily Post’s newspaper racks August 13, and brought them back to the newspaper. Next day the paper put them back.

The city says a official ordinance prohibits free-standing racks downtown. Palo Alto Daily Post publisher Dave Price thinks that the First Amendment - free speech - is being violated. Competitor The Palo Alto Daily News, which has the whole story, quoted Price:

“That right got taken away from us yesterday, plain and simple. It makes me think of book burning. That’s how backward this is.”

New papers are put on a waiting list in Palo Alto, and only get permission when other racks are not used or being abandoned. According to Price this in an unequal treatment in favor of existing papers.

In California, “voluntary pay” newspapers are not qualified to carry legal notices, a state appeals court has ruled.

The decision overturns a May 2007 Humboldt County Superior Court ruling that the Eureka Reporter was a “newspaper of general circulation” that was qualified to run public notices.

The Reporter is a free daily that has a “Voluntary Pay Program” that asks readers to “sponsor” the paper to “cover the expense of home delivery.” The Reporter is delivered whether or not a household pays the paper.

The Times-Standard, a rival paid daily, had challenged the court petition filed by the Reporter in 2007 to be allowed to run legal notices. (editor and publisher)

SF Mayor Gavin Newsom proposed to double newsrack fees from $30 to $60 a year from 30 August on.

The plan has been met by negative reactions from distributors and publishers. Smaller papers might be hurt while also other could be forced to cut down the number of racks. Less newspapers (dailies and weeklies) will be available for the public.

Three free dailies in SF are (partly) distributed through racks: the Examiner, the SF Daily Post and the SF Star. (SFPPC)

The targets of the Westminster council concerning recycling London Lite and thelondonpaper are not being met so far.

The plan, started in January, aimed at recycling 400 tonnes of paper - in the first six months 120 tonnes have been collected. (Guardian)

The Swedish government is thinking about ending the special tax on newspaper advertising. Minister of Culture Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth said this in an article last Sunday in Dagens Nyheter.

Press subsidies in Sweden are cut down, while other media are not burdened with advertising tax laws.

Free dailies could profit from the new rules if they are treated like ‘real newspapers’. On this subject there still is some dispute. Metro, for instance, has had a long fight with the Swedish tax office on this issue (see previous post). (EJC)

The written press in Romania will not be affected by the new press law that was unanimously accepted by the Romanian Senate last week. Earlier the House of Deputies rejected the new rule.

According to the new law, news on radio and TV must be at least 50% positive. Romanian legislation, however, demands that the president has to approve the law before it is implemented.

The National Audiovisual Council (CNA), however, will ask President Traian Basescu not to approve the amendment to the audiovisual law adopted. (Mediafax, II, hotnews.ro)