Swiss free daily .ch will get a makeover at the end of October, as its home delivery will be stopped, Newspaper Innovation reported Tuesday.

The free daily, launched in September 2007, will be mostly available in public transportation centres, where it will compete head-to-head with 20 Minuten and News.

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For nearly four months, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) and the national postal service, Ukrproshta, have been in disagreement over the costs of subscription and distribution of printed publications. The two sides have now agreed that an increase of 27 percent would be acceptable, Gipp.ru reported.

Initially, Ukrposhta intended to raise prices by 60 percent by 2009, but then dropped the figure to 55 percent, and then to 44 percent.

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Circulation of free newspapers in Europe is dropping for the first time in history, Newspaper Innovation reported Monday.

Currently, free newspaper circulation in Europe is at 27 million, while at the end of 2007 it was at 27.3 million.

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Although free dailies generally cut circulation numbers during July, due to more people being away on holiday and not commuting, Spanish free dailies lowered circulation more than usual, Newspaper Innovation reported Monday.

Circulation was 9 percent lower in July 2008 than in July 2007 – from 2,921,000 in 2007 to 2,662,000 in 2008 for four nationwide free dailies, according to calculations from PRNoticias.

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Fewer people in Ireland are in the habit of reading newspapers according to a survey, with 72 percent of adults saying they read a newspaper on Sunday, a three point drop from the prior survey, The Irish Times reported.

Newspaper readership is highest on Sundays, but on weekdays readership has decreased over the past three years, with 56 percent of adults saying they read a daily, the survey found.

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French media group Figaro experienced a 10 percent growth in audiences, attaining 5 million individuals and is now the third most popular media outlet in the country, Le Figaro announced Monday.

Figaro owns daily newspaper Le Figaro, supplements Madame Figaro and Le Figaro Magazine and lefigaro.fr. The group's properties attract one out of 10 people in France, ages from 15 and up, Le Figaro reported.

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French daily newspapers increased their reader numbers by a million, or 4.4 percent, between July 2007 and June 2008, reaching a total of 23.7 million readers, according to a study published by Audipresse on Monday. However, paid dailies such as Le Monde and Le Figaro saw a total loss of 1.8 percent in revenues, Le Monde reported.

The country’s daily paid papers experienced a 7.3 percent increase, boosting readership by 600,000 and reaching a readership base of 8.8 million. This figure corresponds to 17.6 percent of all French people, ages 15 years and above.

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Free title 20 Minuten again wins the most-read Swiss newspaper, according to the MACH Basic readership survey, Newspaper Innovation reported.

With about 1.3 million daily readers, 20 Minuten now reaches twice as many as the former leader paid paper Blick. Both papers had only around 750,000 readers each four years ago.

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Politico.com announced the launch of an advertising and content distribution network that includes 40 “handpicked” sites that range from local news to independent political news outlets, according to Media Week.

“What we are doing here is very different than other ad networks,” said Roy Schwartz, Vice President of business development at Politico. “We’re going after very large sites, but what they don’t necessarily do is concentrate on politics. This is very unique.”

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The New York Times Co. is closing down its metro distribution center, and cutting 550 jobs, paidContent reported.

The center, called City & Suburban delivers the NYT and about 200 other publications to newsstands and retail stores in the New York area.

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Russian sports daily Sport is now available in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and hopes to reach a mass audience of sports enthusiasts, Gipp.ru reported.

The paper, available in those countries since Aug. 15, is 32 pages long, with sections are divided into “Football”, “Hockey”, “Basketball”, “Boxing” and “Formula 1.”

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Large boxes that distribute multiple newspapers are replacing single boxes in Vancouver in an effort to clean up city streets, organise newspapers and reduce the number of newspaper boxes, the Vancouver Sun reported Thursday.

The project was initiated by the city, and also aims to increase recycling, as each of the boxes contain a compartment for recycling old papers. However, configurations of the new boxes force tabloid format newspapers to be displayed sideways, making them difficult to read, and the cost to rent a compartment in the new boxes is much higher than the cost for single boxes.

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Free daily Global Noticias led with the highest circulation in the first six months this year in Portugal. It had a daily circulation of 204,000 copies, according to a Publicitas newsletter.

Free dailies Metro and Destak follow behind, with a circulation of 177,000 and 171,000, respectively, according to the APCT audit, Newspaper Innovation reported.

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Regional newspapers owned by Guardian News & Media and Trinity Mirror have seen success in the first half of 2008 by switching to partly free and partly paid models, Media Week reported Tuesday.

The Birmingham Post, owned by Trinity, and the Manchester Evening News, owned by GNM, are both seeing circulation increases, thanks to new distribution models.

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Newspaper circulation in South Africa is steady, despite a 40 percent increase in transportation costs, as well as higher paper prices and labour costs, Audit Bureau of Circulations SA figures have shown.

Most newspapers “have shown some fantastic developments,” in the second quarter, said Gordon Patterson, of ABC, according to Biz-Community Africa.

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