The national daily newspapers market (updated): 915.000 distributed copies

According to the Romanian ABC (BRAT) figures released at mid-December, the market of the Romanian daily newpapers might have slightly dropped. BRAT published only the figures of 11 titles, which decreased by 6,7 per cent, but the data about the rest of the titles, unaudited and audited, but without figures for July-September 2006, are not available yet. “Jurnalul naţional” dropped down from no. 2 (over 90.000 sold copies) to no. 4 (slightly more than 70.000).

The total market of the Romanian national newspapers raises to roughly 915.000 distributed copies, including the Compact free newspaper and sports, Hungarian language and financial titles, or 598.000 sold copies for the purely general interest newspapers. 4 of the 6 greatest circulation titles belong to Ringier România, while the other two are owned by Intact (Dan Voiculescu).

The leader of the market, Libertatea, a Ringier title, sells roughly 245.000 copies and has a market share of 27 %, including free, sports, business, hungarian, or 41 %, on the purely general interest, sold at newsstands dailies. Adevarul, a quality recently taken over by the controversial oil mogul Dinu Patriciu, went out of the top 10, but Averea, another title acquisitioned by the same, entered it.

According to their sold circulation and other characteristics, the newspapers on the Romanian market could be divided into three cathegories: sexy young-mature, mid-life crisis and agonizing dwarves.

Market shares

All newspapers

BRAT (Romanian ABC) data. The figures represent the latest audit available, sold circulation, with the exception of the Compact free newspaper, where distributed copies are taken into account. Gazeta sporturilor, Pro Sport and Sport Total are sports newspapers. Ziarul financiar is an economic daily. Uj Magyar Szo is a hungarian-language newspaper. The rest of the publications are general dailies. BRAT published only the data of 11 of the titles, for July-September 2006. For a list and a comparison see ‘Circulation variations. The latest Romanian ABC results’ [EN, Comanescu.ro].

Data for the purely general dailies market

By excluding the sports newspapers and both Ziarul financiar and Uj Magyar So, which refer to a determined audience, as well as the free Compact newspaper, the whole market raises to 598.495 sold copies for a total of 13 titles; Libertatea is a leader with almost 41 per cent of the market. The titles with a share smaller than 5 % also have various difficulties and went through property or management changes.

General interest newspapers

Media ownership

The Romanian media market is divided into five big media holdings that include significant televisions and daily newspapers: Ringier, Voiculescu (Intact-Antena), Sîrbu (MediaPro), Patriciu (Adevărul), Vîntu (Realitatea Media-Caţavencu). See ‘The Big 5 on the romanian media market’ [EN, Comanescu.ro] for explanations.

Unaudited titles

The Romanian print media markets also include a number of unaudited titles, such as Cotidianul and Cronica română. According to unofficial sources, their circulation is less than 10.000 sold copies. The ‘Cotidianul’ newspaper was inluded into the top of the Romanian newspapers because of the strong owner (Vîntu), successful inserts during the last weeks (books, DVD’s) and general prospects.

Interpretation: sold circulation and profitability

An unwritten law of the Romanian market is that a newspaper becomes a good business above the 50.000 sold copies limit. The daily newspapers market can be divided into three big categories:

1. Sexy young-mature (65.000-250.000 sold copies) Libertatea, Jurnalul naţional, Evenimentul zilei. A tabloid and two general newspapers oscillating in the quality-mid market area which are clearly profitable. Age: 12-16 years, relaunched in the actual formula between 1997 and 2005. The ‘Compact’ Ringier free newspaper might be included into this category if the circulation stays at 150.000 distributed copies and Ringier sells some advertising.

2. Mid-life crisis: Romania liberă, Gândul, Adevărul, Ziua, Cotidianul. The age of these titles is roughly the same, with the exception of Gândul, which has been launched in 2005, but by a team that defected from Adevărul and tried the same formula consisting of long texts mixing opinion and information, with a conservative broadsheet layout. The common characteristics of these titles are in general low circulation, various changes of management and repeated, but unconvincing face lifts. Both Adevărul and Cotidianul show some signs that they could leave the party to go up, in spite of the decline of Adevărul’s sold circulation, due to strong ownership and managers recently appointed, with good results in their former positions.

3. Agonizing dwarves: Curentul, Curierul naţional, Cronica română, Atac. Appear to be hopeless, in terms of sold circulation, ownership and (lack of) reputation of managers. The various formulas tested led nowhere and one can wonder why such titles still are on the market.

UPDATE, January 11th: Some figures of ‘Ziarul’ also appeared on the Romanian ABC site (Brat.ro). ‘Ziarul’ sold in average per day, in July-September 2006, 23.678 copies, slighthly more than the 22.912 achieved in January-July. The slight difference doesn’t change the general evaluation of the market.

UPDATE 2, February 6th: Marco Stettler, the executive director of the Free Sheets at Ringier Romania, posted the following on Comanescu.ro:
“Allow me an additional comment from Compact:

Apart from the fact that we are obviously very happy with our market share in audited print runs, we also found out through research (Insomar while waiting for SNA in July) that not only we reach more than 600′000 readers every day in Bucharest, but we also reach different, younger readers than the average paid daily newspaper: 62% of our readership is under 34 years old and a big part of them is not reading any other newspaper. It seems that we are actually reaching our goal to make a newspaper for the young, urban generation who is otherwise not usually reading news on paper. Now we are eager to see what SNA will publish in July about Compact.”

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1. [...] Iulian Comanescu estimeaza (pe comanescu.ro) ca ziarele cotidiene nationale distribuie, in total, intr-o zi, in medie, pe piata din Romania cam 915.000 de exemplare. Iulian a luat in considerare cifre de distributie de la 19 ziare, inclusiv gratuitul Compact si ziarele de nisa (sport, unguresti, business). Generalistele nationale vand impreuna aproape 600.000 de exemplare, zice Iulian. Desigur, in Bucuresti sunt peste 30 de titluri care se dau nationale, dar tirajul multora e de buzunar. Sunt curios cam cat de mare e piata localelor si regionalelor.. [...]

   Pingback by jurnalismonline.ro » Blog Archive » Cate ziare — December 27, 2006 #

2. [...] Adevarul is one of the main newspapers in Romania (no.11, 22.847 copies). They were very attached to the printed edition so the transition to the www was not very fast so the domain adevarul.ro was registered by Catalin Braescu. For some years the newspaper was hosted at http://www.adevarulonline.ro. [...]

   Pingback by Core Target - Business blog with Bogdan Gavrila » Blog Archive » Catalin Braescu sells adevarul.ro to S.C. Adevarul S.A. — January 13, 2007 #

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