The graph below shows it all. Readership for almost all Danish newspapers keeps on declining.
Jyllands Posten lost more than half of its readers in the last 14 years, Politiken lost a third.
Free dailies Metro (still no. 1), 24Timer and Urban lost readers as well. The last title lost 60% of its readers compared to 2005.
Distributing free newspapers in the subway of Rome will be more expensive from 2012 on. Also the winner of the bid will have to provide more space in the paper for the Rome city counsel.
Companies have to make a bid – apparently for exclusive distribution rights – before January 12 2012. Publishers think the price is too high while the conditions are also difficult to meet. (Affaritaliani)
The fierce competition between free dailies in Italy has cause Leggo to shut down all regional editions outside Rome and Milan.
Three companies are now publishing free dailies in Rome: Caltagirone (Leggo), RSC Media group (City), DNews and Litosud (Metro).
Swiss TV channel StarTV has a 10 minute program on “the making of Blick am Abend”, the Swiss free evening paper by Ringier. The program is also posted on StarTV’s YouTube Channel (via Persoenlich).
The latest readership data from Spain (AIMC/EGM) shows that only sports papers grow. Almost all other papers lose readers (even in 2011 with no championship).
Sports papers Marca (1), As (4), El Mundo Deportivo (10) all gained readers, only Sport (11) went down in readership.
Free papers 20 Minutos (2), Qué! (5) and ADN (7) lost substantially (-7%, -9% and -15%).
Paid paper El País (3) was stable but El Mundo (6) lost 4% of its readers. La Vanguardia (8) gained readers but El Periodico (9) lost.
The organization of the Spanish free press AEPG, has visualized their business on one page: work force, online/offline sales, sort of ads and the sectors that do advertise in free media. The full pdf can be downloaded from the AEPG website.
Silvio de Groot, working for almost 10 year for Metro, will leave the company at the end of this year.
The reason is that Metro and De Groot could not reach an agreement on how the paper should develop in the coming years.
De Groot has not only worked for a decade for the company and made Metro Holland profitable, he was also Executive Vice President of Metro International and was responsible for several European Metro editions.
Karl Lagerfeld will be the Global Guest Editor of Metro on February 7th, 2012. (photo from & story at metronieuws.nl)
After the huge success of the Lady Gaga’s guest editorship in May, Lagerfeld will be the second guest editor of the international free daily.
After Metro France announced that it would expand distribution from 30 to 60 cities in 2012, also competitor 20 Minutes said it would be available in more cities from January 2012 on.
20 Minutes, jointly owned by Norwegian media group Schibsted and Sofiouest (Groupe Ouest France), will go from 32 to 40 markets. In March of this year the paper already added 20 new markets by introducing an general ‘France’ edition for some smaller cities.
20 Minutes did not name the new markets but claims it will be available in 98% of the ‘urban areas’ (AFP).
Consequences for circulation are not clear yet, the new ‘France’ edition has a circulation of 130,000 in September 2011, bringing total circulation of 20 Minutes (13 editions) to more than 1 million.
Also the DirectPlus papers (13 editions) have a joint circulation of 1 million. Metro (9 editions) has a circulation of 750,000. Direct Soir is not audited, the publisher claims a circulation of 400,000.
Total market share of free dailies in France is around 30%.
New York free daily amNewYork started advertising for a new editor-in-chief.
According to the ad, the readers of the paper “want their news quick and simple and amNewYork fills that niche with a vibrant, broad read that gets them ‘water-cooler’ ready.”
Under the new ownership of commercial TV-channel TF1, Metro France plans to expand distribution in 2012 from 30 to 60 cities.
According to director Edouard Boccon-Gibod, this means that coverage in France wil rise from 68 to 90% of the country.
Circulation, however, will stay the same as the distribution in the existing markets will be lowered. (Ozap)
Metro is now distributed in 9 different daily editions with a total circulation of 770,000 copies. After 20 Minutes and DirectPlus it is the third free daily in the country.