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exiting U.S. market Swedish publisher sells Boston, NYC and Philly papers May 12, 2009 The freebie craze just never caught on in the United States like it did in Europe, and now one of its major backers, Metro International, is bidding “adjo” to America. The Swedish newspaper group has sold its three U.S. papers to Seabay Media, the group headed by former Metro International CEO Pelle Tornberg, after trying to unload them for more than a year. The deal includes the papers in Boston, New York and Philadelphia, though the exact terms of the agreement weren’t released. The three dailies combine for a circulation of 590,000. The papers, part of Metro’s international freebie empire, never performed as well as the parent company had hoped. Last year they combined for a loss of $6 million, according to reports, and that was before the global financial slowdown had begun in earnest. The launch of freebies in major cities like London and Copenhagen shook up the European newspaper market over the past few years, as paid dailies found themselves competing with the free papers for advertising and the attention of time-pressed commuters. But the model never really took in the United States. Just months ago the free Examiner chain closed its Baltimore edition amid advertising woes, and plans by Iceland’s Dagsbrun Media to launch a series of new free sheets stalled out just before the economy flatlined. Even Metro International is hurting. The publisher of 69 papers across nearly two-dozen countries, Metro shuttered its Spanish operations last year and defaulted on several loans.
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