German WAZ is working on a free newspaper

The Essen-based newspaper group WAZ is developing its own free newspaper, as reported by Der Spiegel. The newspaper group is responding to plans by Scandinavian publishers such as Schibsted and Metro, which are already successfully publishing free newspapers in several European countries and are also pushing into the German market. The project is the responsibility of Ulrich Reitz, editor-in-chief of the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. According to a report in Focus, a seven-person team is working on a 40-page free newspaper under his leadership. According to Spiegel, the Essen project is not related to the plans of other German publishers such as M. DuMont Schauberg or Axel Springer, who also want to respond to the threat from Scandinavia. It has not yet been decided whether the WAZ free newspaper will actually be published.