It's no secret that free papers have been expanding exponentially across the European newspaper market for several years, already comprising close to 20% of total newspaper distribution in a number of countries and over 50% in Spain and 75% in Iceland while causing an uproar in Germany. Most recently, the success of freesheets has caused a war in London and a practice that began in America with the freely distributed Examiner is about to arrive in Denmark.
UK: In addition to the war over who will get the rights to distribute a free paper in the London underground, an e-Bay style auction is underway in order to sell off the rights to distribution in 10 of London's principal train stations. Not surprisingly, Rupert Murdoch's News International is in the lead.
Trying to stay innovative in the newspaper market, NI has already secretly organized a team to develop a freesheet, one which it plans on launching even if it doesn't win the London train station bid.
Denmark: 365 Media, an Icelandic publisher of successful "free-to-door" distributed freesheets, that also of Denver-based billionaire Philip Anschutz's Examiner, is transferring its business model to Denmark. Two Danish publishing houses responded with announcements that they will eventually follow a similar route.
365 Media will use Denmark as a test for possible expansion into other European markets. It knows that there are dangers in this model. Newspaper analyst for the World Association of Newspapers Aura Iordan said, “One of the main problems will be that there is no guarantee that the paper will be read. Unlike the commuter model where a consumer has to choose to pick up the title, a free-to-door title is forced upon households. There is even a risk that some consumers will object to this."
But an op-ed in this week's Observer wonders if "free" is the newspaper of the future. Noting that the UK evening market has been declining for some time, the comment refers to the success of London freesheets, some of which are coming close to turning a profit and one of which, City AM, has already surpassed the UK circulation of the Financial Times. In fact the editorialist suggests that a new evening free paper copy City AM. And why wouldn't Rupert Murdoch be the one to launch it? It could use copy produced for the Times throughout the day and could produce packages for advertisers between publications.
Stranger things have happened.
