Albert Montagut, Editor-in-chief of the latest freesheet to launch, ADN, was positive about his company’s decision to print an evening edition. Although he’s not sure if there is room for four free papers in Spain, he is confident that ADN will succeed because it “gives readers in Spain’s principal cities the fresh, transparent and objective news,” which is reinforced in Madrid and Barcelona with the evening paper, ADN2.

“If ADN works out,” continued Montagut, “and we hope it does, the large newspapers may start wondering whether or not they should stop their presses during the day. Evening editions will be the first step. The second step is the interaction between readers and the pages of their newspapers. And the third is the online interaction.” Montagut feels that “Newspapers need to modify and adjust themselves to the necessities of their readers. ADN has an advantage in this sense.”

But the heads of the other freesheets would beg to differ.

Arsenio Escolar, editor of the Spanish paper with the largest distribution, 20 Minutos, said that evening distribution will not work for many reasons. “The interest of the public is much lower by (the evening) because they already know the large part of what’s in the evening paper because they’ve already read it in the morning in other papers. The possibility of sharing editions between readers is much less because the evening paper has a shorter “lifetime.” The confidence of the advertiser is therefore also less because of the shorter “lifetime.” Reader fidelity is also much harder to gain because in the morning, readers are punctual in their commute but much less so when they are going home in the evening.”

Mariano Natera, editor-in-chief of the popular freesheet Que! which has become the country’s third widest distributed paper in its short year-long existence, echoed Escolar’s words. “The evening press has two inconveniences: the first is the difficulty in finding the public in its return home; the second is that the public has a lot less interest in informing itself in the afternoon.”

Natera also had the most interesting and controversial comment of the three editors however no related to evening papers. When asked if he thought there was room for 4 major free papers in Spain, the Que! chief responded, “There is no room for 4 free papers as of now. But the market is evolving year by year, and if it develops at the rhythm of previous years, it’s possible that with time, (free papers) will cause the conversion of paid papers to free papers.”

Certainly this comment will receive strong reactions from editors-in-chief of paid papers for being outrageous. But the way the free paper market and free news online are evolving, is it really that farfetched?

Source: Periodistas 21 (Montagut, Escolar, Natera)