This week's news that Bonnier's free daily City would go non-daily from next month on, and reduce its publishing days to Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursday, had many industry experts scratching their heads - not to mention competitors Metro International and Schibsted, now on the same team of course, cheering.
The "new" City will have different themes for each publishing day: Mondays will be devoted to "living", and focus on career, family, relations and private economy; Wednesdays will be "trend-day" and focus on health, fashion etc; Thursdays will be dedicated to the upcoming weekend and have content on entertainment, culture and sport, according to Dagens Media.
One media agancy proclaimed it a great move that should have been made earlier, a move that would make it easier to target advertisement, plenty of others, mostly media commentators, said it was the beginning of the end for the freesheet, Svenska Dagbladet's Martin Jönsson called it a lesson in "the art of almost closing down a newspaper."
For my own part, I can't imagine why I'd want to read a magazine in newspaper format on my way to or from work, when I hardly find time to fit in all the news I'd like to skim through in a normal workday. But then that might just be me, some might find it a welcome distraction from all the bad news the media does tend to have an affinity for.
I think it's a very interesting move. I seriously doubt whether people scan all the freesheets because they are really news junkies or because there's no other free alternative of a decent quality available?
Well, if there was such an alternative, it would be really interesting to see it unfold. Lets wait a while to pass judgement on that one :-).
Posted by: Mads Kristensen | August 18, 2008 at 06:10 PM
Indeed, I'm very aware that I can't assume other people's response to this is similar to my one, as mine is very much dictated by my professional obsession:-) The funny thing is, when I lived in London, before London Lite and its competitor werelaunched, but Metro was def. an option, my reading of choice on the tube was books rather than freesheets. These days I always pick up freesheets when I'm in London, Copenhagen, Stockholm etc, but is I were to live in London again I think I'd quickly go back to books.
Posted by: Kristine | August 18, 2008 at 10:10 PM
I see no reason why free magazines wouldn't work. Sport, the Paris-born monthly, seems to do quite well.
What I don't understand, though, is why they'd publish all three magazines under the same brand and distribute it on the same spots...
Posted by: nicolas. | August 20, 2008 at 07:16 PM
Niclas, I didn't know you had your own blog. Been checking your posts at L’Observatoire des medias and somtimes at OJB, will add to newsreader (though eloquence in French usually escapes me, due to my own limited grasp of the language, I do get the gist of it)
Posted by: Kristine | August 23, 2008 at 08:23 PM
Hi Kristine,
Thanks for your kind words!
I'll try to post more in English if I know you're reading it :)
Posted by: nicolas. | August 26, 2008 at 12:37 PM