Czech paper sells operation to German publisher
By Erina Lin, Monday 31 December 2007 at 17:04 :: Media Ownership :: #1033 :: rss
Sixty percent of the shares of Metro's Czech edition was sold Dec. 21 to competitor Mafra, owned by German publisher Rheinische Post.
Metro will be operated under a trademark license, and will be merged in the near future with Mafra’s free paper Metropolitni Expres.
Metro is published in different editions for Prague/Bohemia and Moravia, with a circulation of 320,000. According to the newspaper, there are 515,000 daily readers. The data for the first six months of 2007, however, reports merely 341,000 daily readers, according to Newspaper Innovation.
However, Metro is still the best read free daily in the country before 24 Hodin and Metropolitni Expres. Competition also comes from paid papers; with 341,000 readers, Metro ranks fifth in the country.
Newspaper Innovation pointed out that due to heavy competition over the years, management changes in the Czech operation were very common, which, however, did not apparently lead to real profits. Metro reported net sales of €7.4 million in 2006, but the sale was a little painful because the Czech operation was the first Metro outside Sweden.
Launched in the Czech Republic in July 1997, there are 78 employees working for Metro.
According to Newspaper Innovation, Mafra will offer joint advertising in Dnes, Lidové Noviny and Metro. As Metropolitni Expres was not mentioned in this plan, it would probably be closed down soon, Newspaper Innovation reported.
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