Freesheets equal unsolicited advertisement
November 02, 2006
Edda Media (the new name for Mecom's Norwegian newspaper portfolio) is up in arms over a government proposal that will put door-to-door distributed freesheets on par with unsolicited advertisement.
The media company has 13 local freesheets in the Greater Oslo area. If the proposed revision of Norway's marketing law is adopted, Edda Media would be prohibited from distributing those to households with 'no to unsolicited advertisement' stickers on their mailboxes (via Kampanje, in Norwegian). The proposed revision would also throw a spanner in the works for Icelandic group Dagsbrun and its plans to launch a door-to-door quality-freesheet in Norway.
Free newspapers distributed door-to-door is quite the trend on Iceland and in Denmark, and one is left to wonder if the Norwegian government has thought of all the implications of forcing media companies to distribute their freebies on tube stations... If nothing else, perhaps Oslo Underground gets to add a brand new excuse to the worn-out 'snow and ice on the tracks'...
A brand new excuse is exactly what it will be! Accompanied by Dagbaldet 'cry me a river' tales from workers who say it's not in their job contract to clean papers off the tracks, accompanied by a strike or two, ending in more state funding of the T-Bane a couple more days holiday for the messy task of dealing with wet ink.
I would welcome this move though - these free-sheets in my mailbox drive me round the bend, especially when you discover an important bill was stuck between some crucial stories about a local restaurant closing down and a drunk who is barred from the Champagneria in a copy of Oslo Vest which you threw down the shute in a moment of rage.
Posted by: Daniel M. Harrison | November 02, 2006 at 03:59 PM
Ha, ha.. that does indeed sound like a very likely prospect, though there is this rumour on the grapevine that well-placed policy makers in Oslo are eager to sell off the right to run, or more accurately fund, Oslo Underground, though of course retain the right to set prices etc...
On the local freeheets: I find them rather useful for the fire place, and they are actually ten times better than the awful Avis1, whose distributers used to run down the doors in this city.
Posted by: Kristine Lowe | November 07, 2006 at 10:04 PM