Newspaper Innovation

El País is the best-visited ‘general’ online newspaper in Spain. In March the paper had almost 2 million unique visitors. El País, however, is beaten by sports paper Marca with more than 2.3 million visitors.

The other three sports papers AS (1.2 million), Mundo Deportivo (646,000 visitors) and Sport (624,000 visitors) are 3rd, 4th and 5th.

The website of free daily 20 Minutos follows with 547,000 visitors. Other free dailies and paid daily El Mundo are not included in the research. (Publicitas newsletter)

Mark Fletcher covered the free Hong Kong daily The Standard no less than three times this week on his the Australian Newsagency blog. He was not only impressed with the content but also with his distribution of the paper.

In his last entry Mark included a copy of a full page ad of the paper, celebrating its victory in readership and circulation over rival The South China Morning Post. (more…)

All four Spanish national free dailies have more readers in the first report of 2008 (April 2007 - March 2008) than in previous periods. Most paid papers, however, also had more readers in the latest audit.

20 Minutos is still the best read paper in Spain with 2,685,000 readers (+ 7% compared to the previous audit). Paid sports paper Marca is second with 2,550,000 readers. Also Marca gained readers. (more…)

Portuguese readership data for Q1 2008 reveal a general decline in readership of paid papers while business dailies and free papers see their readership go up.

Paid paper Jornal de Noticias saw daily reach go from 11.5 to 11.1%; second paid paper Correio da Manha went down form 11.3 to 10.8%. Also the ’smaller’ paid papers Publico, Diario de Noticias and 24horas saw readership decline. For the five free dailies the situation is different. (more…)

Metro (by Agora) is the third best-read newspaper in Poland, after Gazeta Wyborcza (also Agora) and Fakt (Axel Springer). Gazeta Wyborcza reaches 5.5 million readers on a weekly basis (18%), while Fakt had a readership of 5.1 million (17%).

Metro has a weekly readership of 2.4 million (8%) in the period September 2007 - February 2008.

Compared to the previous two periods, all papers, however, lost some readership. Gazeta Wyborcza reached 19.7% in 2006-2007, Fakt 18.9% and Metro 8.15%. (Publicitas newsletter)

The (small) drop of Metro’s readership is rather curious because the paper had a competitor in the previous period. Metropol (by Metro International) closed down in January 2007.

The second and third best-circulated newspapers in Austria: paid/free daily Österreich and free daily Heute are not included in the readership audit over the full year 2007.

Best-read paper Kronen Zeitung with 2.9 million readers. Kleine Zeitung is second with 821,000 readers, while Kurier is third with 624,000 readers. All three lost readership in the last two years.

Circulation audits in Austria are almost useless because Kronen Zeitung and Kurier don’t participate; readership audits are not much better because of the missing free dailies (also Oberösterreichs Neue is not audited). (Publicitas)

Both free dailies in the French speaking part of Switzerland: 20 Minutes and Le Matin Bleu saw their readership jump in 2007 compared to the previous year.

20 Minutes increased with 41% to 390,000 readers which makes it the second paper in the Western part of Switzerland after Le Matin Blue. This free paper now has 469,000 readers (an increase of 33%).

Paid dailies Le Matin (296,000; -7%) and 24 Heures (241,000) are third and fourth. (more…)

De Telegraaf is still the best-read Dutch newspaper with 2.2 million readers according to the last NOM research over the year 2007. Free papers Metro (1.9 million) and Spits (1.8 million) are 2nd and 3rd.

Paid papers AD and Volkskrant are 4th and 5th. Free dailies De Pers and DAG are 6th and 7th with 800,000 and 700.000 readers.

French free daily 20 Minutes was the best-read national daily in France in 2007 with 2,526,000 daily readers. Metro is second with 2,323,000 million before sports paper L’Equipe (2,302,000 readers). Paid papers Le Monde and Le Parisien follow with just over 2 million readers.

Metro saw the biggest increase (+46%) compared to last year; 20 Minutes increased readership with 17%. The readership increase of Metro is a result of increased circulation (from 636,000 to 740,000). 20 Minutes distributes 716,000 copies. (Le Point)

The Irish Independent is the best-read Irish newspaper in 2007 - as it was the preceding years - with 570,000 readers. Irish Daily Star, The Irish Times, Evening Herald and Irish Sun follow, all with more than 300,000 readers.

Readership of most titles is quite stable for the last five years, although the method used in earlier years was different so comparing is difficult. The two Irish free dailies Metro and Herald AM (both launched in 2005) are not yet included. But from January 2008 on they also will be audited by the National Readership Survey.

New 2007 readership data for Canada by NADBank showed increased readership for free dailies in the four major Canadian markets. In Toronto 28% of the 18+ population (1.2 million) reads a free daily at least once a week (26% in 2006, 18% in 2001). In Montreal the percentage was 25 (23% in 2006, 17% in 2002). In Ottawa weekly readership increased from 13% in 2006 to 22% in 2007; in Vancouver weekly readership of free papers went from 28 to 30%.

In Toronto Metro is now the second best-read paper (435,000 daily readers, 10% of population) after the Toronto Star (953,000 readers, 22%). 24 hours (349,000, 8%) is fifth after Toronto Sun and the Globe and Mail. Metro passed the Sun on the list. (more…)

To distinguish itself from free afternoon dailies London Lite and the londonpaper the only remaining paid London evening paper Evening Standard is trying to convince advertisers that their readership is more mature, more affluent and more influential than that of the freesheets. The Evening Standard is therefore a better buy for advertising agencies.

According to the Guardian “the paper is touring the agencies claiming it is read by more people in the AB socio-economic group than any other daily quality newspaper, including the Financial Times, and that 63% of its 712,000 readers do not read another quality daily. (…) The Standard is telling agencies that it is reaching an audience of “influentials”, which last year collectively spent £330m on new cars, £754m on their last holiday and £603m on communications.” (more…)

Free daily 24timer was the best-read Danish newspaper in the second half of 2007 with 535,000 readers a day. MetroXpress is second with 507,000 readers. Free daily Nyhedsavisen is fourth (470,000 readers) after paid paper Jyllands Posten (505,000 readers).

Urban is fifth with 435,000 readers; followed by Politiken (432,000), Ekstra Bladet (425,000), B.T. (401,000) and Berlingske (356.000).

The market leader 24timer increased its readership compared to the first half of 2007 with 21%; Nyhedsavisen even increased readership with 47%. (Publicitas newsletter) (more…)

Detalied Audipress 2007 II was gathered from March 2007 to June 2007 and from September 2007 to December 2007. The complete list has free dailies on the 4th, 5th and 6th place. The top 11 (plus free daily E Polis) is below. Free business daily 24 Minuti was not audited.

La Gazzetta dello Sport (3.581.000; -0,3%)
la Repubblica (2.991.000; +1.6%)
il Corriere della Sera (2.722.000; + 4,1%)
Leggo (2,262,000; +11,4%)
City (1.886.000; +8.8%)
Metro (1,839,000; +8.9%)
La Stampa (1.384.000 + 0,4%)
Il Corriere dello Sport (1.310.000)
il Messaggero (1.289.000)
Il Resto del Carlino (1.180.000)
Il Sole 24 Ore (1.149.000)
E Polis (832,000)

Sports paper Gazzetta della Sport is still the best read paper in Italy (3,581,000 - almost 10 readers per copy!) although it lost some readership compared to last year. Free daily Leggo is now second with 2,262,000 (2.2 reader per copy) which is an increase of 11% compared to the previous period.

Also free papers City and Metro increased readership. (More detailed data will follow later.)

Compact Bucuresti is the best-read Romanian free newspaper in the period October 2006 - October 2007. The paper by Swiss publisher Ringier had 262,000 readers; circulation was 157,000. Compact is the second Romanian newspaper after Libertatea (circulation 310,000).

Curentul, the formerly paid newspaper had 82,000 readers; with a circulation of 88,000. Arad Expres had 28,000 readers (18,000 circulation) and Timis Expres 59,000 readers (30,000 circulation). The new Expres titles in Hunedoara and Cluj were not audited yet.

Free Czech daily Metro saw its daily readership increase to 393,000 from 387,000 in the last six months of 2006. Ringier free daily 24 Hodin now has 200,000 readers (156,000 in 2006) while Metropolitní Expres has 202,000 readers (not audited in 2006).

Metro is the fourth paper in the country after Blesk, MF Dnes and Pravo - all three titles lost readers.

The majority of the Czech Metro was sold in December to German publisher Rheinische Post, also owner of Metropolitní Expres. (Publicitas newsletter).

With 1.571,000 daily readers Metro is Sweden’s best read paper in the last four months of 2007. Paid papers Aftonbladet (1,255,000 readers), Expressen (1,040,000 readers) and Dagens Nyheter are second, third and fourth according to the last Orvesto research.

The second Swedish free daily City had 600,000 readers, while Punkt SE followed with 594,000 readers. Punkt (Schibsted) is published in all three major markets Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö; City (Bonnier) only in two because it closed down the Göteborg edition, while Metro has also a national edition. (more…)

Metro is the third best read daily in Portugal and Destak is the fourth after paid dailies Jornal de Noticias and Correio da Manha.

Both paid dailies have a readership of just over one million. Metro has 773,000 daily readers (9.3% of population) while Destak had 739,000 readers (8.9%).

Free daily Meia Hora, launched last June, had 241,000 readers (2.9% of population) while Global Noticias, launched in September had 291,000 readers (3.5% reach). (Publicitas Newsletter)

New data (AIMC / EGM) on Spanish readership reveals that 20 Minutos is the best read paper in Spain before sports paper Marca and quality paid paper El Pais. The other free dailies Qué!, Metro and ADN follow on place 4, 5 and 6.

More remarkably, however, is that all Spanish papers seem to have gained readers in the last year (click on graph for full size picture). That is, all but Marca (down 12,000 readers) and ABC (down 57,000 readers).

All free papers increased their readership, ADN with more than 300,000; 20 Minutos with 130,000; Qué! with 80,000 and Metro with 46,000.

Also paid papers El Pais, El Mundo, and sports paper As saw substantial increased readership.

Over a longer time span (2000-2007) all papers except El Periodico and ABC gained readers. Free papers were introduced in 2000, but are only measured since 2002.