Europe’s Papers Join the Cry of ‘Read All About It, Free’ - New York Times
Europe’s Papers Join the Cry of ‘Read All About It, Free’
LONDON, Aug. 6 — When Metro International, a publisher of free newspapers, moved into France in 2002, established competitors cried foul, and some of their workers took to the streets. Four years later, Metro and other free papers are fixtures of the French cityscape, accounting for one in five papers read in France, and publishers of paid-for dailies are considering free editions of their own.
The about-face in France reflects a broader shift across Europe, as upstart free papers continue their rapid growth and publishers of existing papers, casting about for any way to retain readers, increasingly turn to giveaways. Last week, the News Corporation, which publishes The Sun and The Times of London, confirmed plans to start a free newspaper in Britain next month.
In France, Le Monde and Le Figaro are said to be working on free newspapers. And in Germany, where entrenched publishers have resisted the trend, Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, publisher of the financial daily Handelsblatt, plans to start a free business paper as soon as Monday, according to reports in German news media.