PARIS: When 20 Minutos scaled the heights to claim the prize as Spain's largest general-circulation newspaper, the free sheet gloated over the news with a giant front-page photo of King Kong with bared teeth.
"We're No. 1. We're No. 1," said José Antonio Martínez Soler, laughing. He started the paper in his basement six years ago and has watched total readership grow to 2.3 million while rivals reacted first with indifference and hostility, then imitation and now seduction.
"In the first stage we were just charity or garbage to them," he said, noting that a number of prominent visitors had made the procession to his Madrid office since December, when 20 Minutos surged past El País in circulation. "We're getting a lot of boyfriends coming to our office in the last year and a half. The paid papers have decided that they cannot destroy or copy us, and so now they want to buy and marry us."
The suitors might not necessarily be all that enamored. But they are extremely conscious of young commuters with their noses buried deep in free newspapers. The free dailies have seen a dramatic rise in distribution in Europe, with their circulation rising to 23 million last year, up more than 33 percent from the year before, according to Piet Bakker, an associate professor of communications at the University of Amsterdam.
More than half of the circulation of free newspapers in Europe is now taken by giveaways produced by traditional newspaper publishers. These old-line companies are also investing in pioneers like 20 Minutos, which last year sold a 20 percent stake to the Spanish media conglomerate Zeta Group.
The past six months have been something of a breeding season in Europe, where the market share of free newspapers is considerably higher than the 4 percent they have in the United States.
New titles were introduced in Spain, Denmark, Iceland and Portugal to compete with the pioneers Metro, first handed out in Sweden and now found in nearly 20 countries worldwide, and 20 Minutes. In Latvia and Lithuania, the titles of the new papers suggest still faster reading: 15 Minutes and 5 Minutes.
But 20 Minutos' perch atop the circulation charts in Spain is precarious. This month, Planeta Group is expected to start Spain's fourth national free paper, Página Cero, with an expected circulation of one million.
Today, almost half the newspapers in Spain are distributed free. In Iceland, the share is 72 percent. In Sweden, Metro emerged as the largest daily newspaper last month, according to the Orvesto readership survey by Research International, which said its daily readership of 1.4 million represented a 20 percent increase.
The rash of new giveaways may have more to do with consumers' economic struggles than with the popularity of the format. And the World Cup soccer championship, to be held in Germany this year, is a tantalizing time to introduce titles with enhanced sports coverage. Both Metro and 20 Minutes plan to expand their sports sections in June.
"There's just a better outlook," Bakker said. "You saw a slowing in 2001 and 2002 after growth in 1999 and 2002. Then it slowed down again, and now in this month a lot of new editions are being launched. It has to do with more consumer trust and spending, and the fact that paid newspapers are losing ground with the younger generation."
Reflecting the papers' dominant audience of young urban readers, their advertising is dominated by electronic goods and related gadgets.
"Mobile phones are very important, and so are ring tones," Bakker said. "That might work for some time, but it's also possible that mobile phones could be saturated in a few years. So that could be a problem."
In Spain, 20 Minutos has already responded. Ten months ago it started a Web site with the aim of attracting other types of advertising.
The newspaper is also opening up its printed pages to more commentary - which led to some controversy when a guest writer suggested that if a political enemy were shot in the heart, nothing would happen because he lacked one.
The top editors and management apologized, and the writer, a Barcelona judge, was banished from the pages of 20 Minutos. But Martínez Soler concedes that with rising circulation come heightened scrutiny and attention from government officials.
For now he is savoring 20 Minutos' leading position and studying his competitors' moves. In a few months he will be facing a salvo from archrival Metro, which is bringing back a familiar guest writer: it will be publishing Cervantes's "Don Quixote" in a series of inserts.
