The market demands free newspapers

For years, publisher Michael Ringier has spoken out against free publications. In the last 13 months, he has launched five new free products: three in Eastern Europe, "heute" and "Cash daily" in Switzerland. Even though he was not a fan of free newspapers in the past and probably still isn't today, he says in an interview with the Basler Zeitung that "the market is demanding free newspapers". If the competition follows suit, Ringier cannot stand on the sidelines. He cites traditional journalism as the reason for his skepticism; this is the industry he comes from. He therefore had great doubts for a long time as to whether the new type of "fast-food" journalism would find any readers at all. Today, he describes free newspapers as "a different kind of journalism". However, Ringier still considers traditional journalism to be essential for the functioning of democracy. When asked who will pay for journalism in the future, he says: "We have to sell advertisers the idea of a product that runs on all technologies, as with 'Cash daily'". In addition, Dufourstrasse wants to continue to sell its products to readers, but this news must go beyond topicality. Nobody wants to read again in the morning what they already learned the day before via other channels. Ringier is also convinced that today's 20-year-old free newspaper readers will buy a newspaper when they get into positions of responsibility. The publisher also revealed in the interview that changes are planned for Blick - which will be seen in the coming year.