What’s That About Free Newspapers As Saviors? Oh Yeah, Ad Slump…
After debate over the last few years over free and freely distributed metro newspapers and how they represented the future of the industry comes the news that the bubble might be bursting there too. Metro International, the world’s largest free-newspaper company, is considering closing or selling off its U.S. editions, starting with the loss-making New York edition, reports Times UK. Metro opened in Philadelphia in 2000, Boston in 2001 and New York in 2004. In July, the Luxembourg-based company announced a net loss of about $3 million for Q208, compared with a net profit of $1.45 million in 2007. Spain and the US accounted for most of the losses.
Meanwhile, closure of other newspapers are becoming common, the latest examples are Nyhedsavisen in Denmark and two titles in Scotland, reports Roy Greenslade. This year has shown an all-time low in circulation growth for free dailies worldwide, according to data.
One major reason these papers are being hit, especially in Europe: adoption of hybrid distribution techniques by traditional newspapers: some are sold and some are given away, as the Manchester Evening News is doing, Roy points out. But even free newspapers are an interim medium for the news to be freely available online..that is the inevitable march anyway.
Posted In: Media & Publishing, Newspapers
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Comments (2)
Sep 3, 2008 9:25 AM
Metro’s problem isn’t the free daily concept. It is mismanagement. The US properties (full disclosure: I was launch publisher for Metro New York) have had six overseers since the launch of Metro New York in May 2004. Several of them had no newspaper experience, which resulted in disastrous decisions. The staff at the three papers has turned over countless times.
The company has been incapable of thinking strategically (why launch newspapers in Philadelphia or Boston, for God’s sake, when the growth in the US is in the South and West?). Its London managers don’t understand the US markets (which, along with the desire to save on newsprint expense, is why the US papers sometimes don’t publish on days that aren’t US holidays).
Metro won’t be able to sell the US properties because there’s no longer any value there. Once profitable Boston is not profitable any more. And Philly, which also turned profitable briefly under a skilled publisher, is now deeply in the red. The New York paper long ago lost the free daily war to AM New York, a Tribune property.
The new CEO is a great guy. But he’s surrounded by lots of the same people who made the boneheaded decisions of the past. And he’s at the bottom of a hole that I can’t imagine anyone being able to dig out of.
Nov 11, 2008 2:22 AM
One major reason these papers are being hit, especially in Europe