Newspaper Innovation

The French ‘Direct Plus’ group of free newspapers, in which the Bolloré group has an important stake, will expand its circulation in the coming weeks from 740,000 to 850,000. After this expansion the brand will be the free paper with the highest circulation in France, surpassing market leader 20 Minutes (765,000) and Metro (640,000).

The Bolloré group is also thinking about launching new editions in some cities, mentioned were: Rennes, Clermont-Ferrand, Grenoble, Nancy and Saint-Etienne. (Les Echos)

In terms of readership, however, the Direct Plus papers are still lagging behind. In the last survey there were 1.7 million readers for the titles, against 2.7 million for 20 Minutes and 2.5 million for Metro.

After converting the London Evening Standard to a free model, Independent chairman Evgeny Lebedev, son of owner Alexander Lebedev, thinks of doing the same with the recently acquired Independent.

Lebedev told the Financial Times “we will have to do something. The Independent can’t stay in its present form because it will continue losing money.” (via EditorsWeblog)

After newspaper entrepreneur Chris Bullivant said he would launch a free paper in Birmingham, incumbent publisher Trinity Mirror announced that they would launch a free version “Birmingham Post Lite” of their paid title Birmingham Post next Thursday. (Greenslade)

In the beginning of 2010 the existing Irish free dailies Metro and Herald AM will launch in Dublin.

The new paper will have a circulation of around 75,000 and will be published by DMGT Ireland (Irish Daily Mail, operating Metro in the UK), The Irish Times Ltd and Independent Newspapers (Irish Independent, Evening Herald).

After the closure of thelondonpaper and London Lite and the conversion of the Evening Standard to a free model, the free-paper war in London is far from over.

A group of investors are planning a free newspaper ‘The London Weekly’ that will be distributed twice a week in London, on Fridays and Saturdays, with a circulation of 250,000 copies. (The Guardian)

The publisher, Global Publishing Group has raised more than £5.5m to launch the title according to the Guardian, along with a website and online radio station and TV channel. Around 30% of the newspaper’s content will be generated by its readers.

The website will go live on December 20, the paper will be “covering light entertainment, gossip, politics, health, music and fashion.”

Swiss publisher Tamedia will decide on the fate of free daily News halfway December according to Swiss business magazine Bilanz.

The free paper will have to cooperate very closely with paid paper Tages-Anzeiger (forced advertising combination and mainly increasing Tages-Anzeigers readership in total) or close down.

News was launched in December 2007 to counter free daily .CH and protect the position of free daily 20 Minuten (also by Tamedia). ‘Ch’ closed down in May of this year.

The edition for Mittelland was closed in December 2008, the Basle and Berne editions closed at the end of August after local partners pulled out.

News is now only available in Zurich. Circulation is around 100,000 – readership should be not more than 200,000.  According to Persoenlich, News made a loss of 7m Swiss Francs this year.

This morning, however, there was not a copy of News available in Zurich as I got up. 20 Minuten counted an impressive 60 pages, while yesterday’s Blick am Abend printed 36 pages. Both are more exciting papers than Tages-Anzeiger and NZZ.

German publisher Axel Springer will launch Welt Aktuell, a new free daily that will be distributed to travelers on domestic Lufthansa flights and in airport lounges, in January 2010.

The afternoon (16.30) paper will have a circulation of 30,000 and will count 12 pages daily. Content will be taken from other Springer publications like Die Welt and Welt Kompakt. (FAZ medien newsletter)

This news comes two weeks after the Süddeutsche Zeitung decided to close their own in-flight afternoon paper SZ Primetime. This paper consisted of material taken from the mother paper as well. Earlier several other free German dailies were aimed at train or airplane travelers. All of them closed within a few years or even months (see previous post)

According to Alexander Lebedev, the owner of the Evening Standard, the paper “is the first leading quality newspaper to go free.” Well, not quite.

In 2006 the Manchester Evening News went free, meaning it was free in the city center although it was still paid in other areas. The example of MEN is not that encouraging of course as the paper cut down circulation recently on all but two days a week.

In the US the San Francisco Examiner, founded in 1865 was converted to a free daily in 2003. In Hong Kong economic daily The Standard went from paid to free in 2007.

Also the Beijing Daily Messenger, The Sun (Malaysia), Hoy (Chicago, NY & LA), All Dia (Dallas), Diario de Caracas (Venezuela), Jornal de Londrina (Brazil), La Hora (Chile), Diario Occidente (Colombia) and Curentul (Bucharest) moved from paid to free. The question remains of what ‘quality’ is, but the Evening Standard is not the first that made the move.

After 180 years London’s Evening Standard will become a free daily on October 12. Circulation will be increased from 250,000 to 600,000 copies, with the option to increase that further to 750,000 by the end of the year.

The fate of free evening paper London Lite, the near-monopolist after the closure of thelondonpaper two weeks ago, is still uncertain, but it will very ,likely merge with The Evening Standard, meaning in fact that it will be closed down as the former paid brand seems to be stronger.

Russian ex-KGB agent Alexander Lebedev bought 75% of the ES in January, 25% is still owned by Associated Newspapers, the owner of London Lite. “The London Evening Standard is the first leading quality newspaper to go free and I am sure others will follow,” Lebedev told The Guardian.

In August the Evening Standard had a circulation of 236,000, 51% of that already being handed out for free, which makes the move somewhat less revolutionary.

Hans Dichand, the 88-year old owner of Kronen Zeitung, the absolute market leader in Austria, dreams about expanding his Kronen Zeitung to the former parts of the Austrian-Hungarian Kaiserreich.

In the Kronen weekend section ‘Live’ he said that launching free versions of his popular tabloid in the former “Kronländer” would be a very good idea because there is still an Austrian-feeling in those areas. (Der Standard)

These Kronländer span several Southern and Eastern European countries outside Austria. Publishers in the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Russia, Croatia, Italy, Serbia, Ukraine, Bosnia, Herzegowina and Romania should watch their backs.

Below a map from Wikipedia with all the ‘contested’ areas.