Free Daily Newspaper - Timeline

Timeline

• 1885 - 18??: General-Anzeiger für Lübeck und Umgebung (Lübeck (Germany)
• 1906 – present: Manly Daily (Manly, Australia)
• 1945: Der Panzerbär (Berlin, Germany)
• 1947: Dean Lesher launches free daily in Walnut Creek, California, which became known as the Contra Costa Times.
• 1971: Colorado Daily in Boulder, Colorado is kicked off campus and becomes a free daily newspaper serving the community around the university.
• 1979–present: A number of free dailies open in Colorado.
• 1984–1991: The Birmingham Daily News is published in Birmingham, England.
• 1989: The Conway Daily Sun starts — a free tabloid publishing six days a week. Started at 3,000 circulation and now publishes 16,000 daily. Within a year, the paper was making a profit. Due to economic troubles, paper reduced to five days per week in 2009.
• 1995: Palo Alto Daily News starts — a free tabloid publishing then six days a week. Within nine months, the paper was making a profit.
• 1995: Metro begins publishing in Stockholm, Sweden.
• 1997: Metro launches second edition in Prague, Czech Republic.
• 1999: A free daily starts in Berkeley, California known as the Berkeley Daily Planet on April 7. It folds on November 22, 2002. The name is sold to a local politician who revives the paper in 2004 as a twice-a-week publication.
• 2000: Palo Alto Daily News launches sister papers in San Mateo, Burlingame and Redwood City, California on August 9.
• 2000: 'San Mateo Daily Journal starts publishing on August 18, providing real local news for the local area.
• 2000: In order to win Justice Department approval of its purchase of the San Francisco Chronicle, Hearst Corporation is forced to sell its San Francisco Examiner to the Florence Fang family. Hearst is also ordered to pay the Fangs $66 million in order to operate the paper for three years.
• 2000: The City Paper, a free daily in Nashville, Tennessee, launches on November 1.
• 2002: Metro International launched the first free daily newspaper in Hong Kong and broke even within a year: said to be the best record in the group. The big success led to the launch of four free daily papers, with a total free circulation rising to two million in 2007.
• 2002: Los Gatos Daily News launched by Palo Alto Daily News on May 15.
• 2002: Denver Daily News publishes first issue on May 10.
• 2003: The Fangs convert the broadsheet, paid-circulation San Francisco Examiner into a free circulation tabloid, modeled after the Palo Alto Daily News on February 24.
• 2003: AM New York launches on October 10.
• 2003: Quick, a free daily newspaper serving the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, is launched on November 1 by The Dallas Morning News and published by Belo Corp. The paper is in response to plans by American Consolidated Media to launch a free daily newspaper, A.M. Journal Express.
• 2003: A.M. Journal Express is launched on November 12 by American Consolidated Media. The paper closed April 30, 2004 after losing under $5 million, according to chairman Jeremy Halbreich.
• 2004: Conservative billionaire Philip Anschutz buys the free circulation tabloid San Francisco Examiner from the Fangs for a reported $20 million on February 19.
• 2005: Palo Alto Daily News sold to Knight Ridder on February 15. Later in the year, on May 20, Palo Alto Daily News spawns another free daily in Berkeley, called the East Bay Daily News.
• 2005: In April, Morris Communications starts Bluffton Today, an experimental free daily tabloid with a significant online community journalism element, in Bluffton, South Carolina.
• 2005: The first financial free newspaper, City A.M., was created in London.
• 2006: Santa Barbara Daily Sound starts on March 23 in Santa Barbara, California. Founded by Jeramy Gordon.
• 2006: San Francisco Daily starts on May 3. Founded by Dave Price, Jim Pavelich and Amando Mendoza.
• 2006: Manchester Daily Express starts on May 22 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Founded by Jody Reese, the paper became a weekly on February 28, 2008.
• 2006: London Lite and thelondonpaper fight for media supremacy in Central London.
• 2007: In March, Profigroup starts Dialog, the free newspaper project in Bulgaria (East Europe) with only positive news and articles.
• 2007 Westminster supports campaign to highlight freesheet waste
• 2007: December Notes from the Underground launches as London's first creative writing tabloid freesheet.
• 2007: Anti-freesheet fight goes to No 10
• 2008: UK papers to prompt recycling debate
• 2008: Palo Alto Daily Post starts on May 27 in Palo Alto, California. Founded by Dave Price and Jim Pavelich.
• 2009: Both Thelondonpaper and London Lite shut down.