Covering major sporting events, such as the football World Cup to be held in Germany this summer, can present free papers with the possibility of diversifying their advertising portfolios by attracting advertisers who target male readers.

Both Metro and 20 Minutes, distributors of free newspapers across France, have revealed their editorial plans for coverage of the 2006 football World Cup. 20 Minutes has reached an agreement with the free weekly entitled Sport. Starting on June 12th the two will publish a million copies of a 24 page special edition covering the event, to be distributed in 19 cities across France.

Metro will distribute 450 000 copies a day of a 12 page special edition focusing on the World Cup from June 9th until July 10th.

The initiatives of the two papers will be a test to see if they can attract more advertising.

Source: Le Figaro (in French) (through the IFRA newsletter)