The free newspaper bloodbath – more to come
Some interesting figures kicking around on the free newspaper market, which lost five million copies in 2009 and has turned into something of a “bloodbath” with more to come.
The stats from Newspaperinnovation.com make for interesting reading. It says the free paper business saw massive growth in circulation group between 2003 and 2008 as dailies tripled from 14 to 42 million. Obviously a big part of that growth came in the UK where we saw the birth and death of Thelondonpaper and LondonLite.
Then in 2009 that all changed. Circulation of free dailies dropped rapidly falling from 42 million in 2008 to 37 million at the end of 2009. That is a -12% decline and the largest part of that came in Europe where 60% of free dailies are distributed.
“Looking in detail at the European market, the situation resembles a genuine bloodbath at first sight. Only three free dailies are left In the UK (Metro, City AM and The Evening Standard), but in the past a dozen titles closed down.
“In Sweden only one of the three national titles remains; in Denmark two of the five national free dailies closed down plus all free local papers; in Spain the number of free dailies went from 34 in 2006 to 14 in 2010; in Switzerland there were eight free dailies in 2008, now only three of those are still in business. In Germany a dozen free newspapers were launched in the last decade, none survived.”
It goes on. There is a graph.
So what does this herald for much talked of possible phantom new free launch in the UK known as the London Weekly. It is supposed to go live this week, but appears to have no staff, no promotion and media agencies know nothing about it. We were told last month that it was on track for launch and would distribute 250,000 copies on each day (it is being distributed on Friday and Saturday).
Paul Morris, head of advertising at the paper, told Brand Republic that the lack of promotion was down to the quick turn around time for launching the paper and this had prevented it from speaking to “enough agencies”.
MediaGuardian quoted one media agency exec who said that he had talked to the paper’s ad team who told him the were targeting advertisers in the retail, theatre and film sectors.
“I think it is the most amateurish, doomed-to-failure thing I have heard of in years. They have not really been in touch with [media] agencies. The business plan targeting Friday and Saturday is two different groups, one commuters, one not, so it is not clear how that is going to work”
There is no word on the complicated distribution network it will need. This paper will not make it to the street.
Question is what on earth is going on with the whole thing in the first place? What possessed anyone to start this? Why have a quick turn around? Oh boy, you could go on all day asking questions of this, but really it is simply suicidal to try it after the closure of the Thelondonpaper and London Lite. It all looks like some kind of media madness. That or a whole load of BS. It could just be that.
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