Free paper now No. 1 in Spain: New titles were introduced in Spain, Denmark, Iceland and Portugal to compete with the pioneers Metro, first handed out in Sweden and now found in nearly 20 countries worldwide, and 20 Minutes. In Latvia and Lithuania, the titles of the new papers suggest still faster reading: 15 Minutes and 5 Minutes.
But 20 Minutos' perch atop the circulation charts in Spain is precarious. This month, Planeta Group is expected to start Spain's fourth national free paper, Página Cero, with an expected circulation of one million.
Today, almost half the newspapers in Spain are distributed free. In Iceland, the share is 72 percent. In Sweden, Metro emerged as the largest daily newspaper last month, according to the Orvesto readership survey by Research International, which said its daily readership of 1.4 million represented a 20 percent increase.
The rash of new giveaways may have more to do with consumers' economic struggles than with the popularity of the format.
