The Spanish Press Market Publishing groups

There are about 750 publishers in the magazine sector in Spain, representing around 7.000 titles. The biggest publishing groups with 116 main titles represent 72% of the market. 30 major titles make up 50% of the total circulation. Looking at the size of this market the sales volume amounts to 270 million copies with a sales value of around 470 million euros. Among the major publishing groups in the Spanish market there is a very strong presence from the international publishing houses (Axel Springer, Bauer, G+J, Edipresse, Hachette Filipacchi, Motorpress, etc), together with leading Spanish groups (Grupo Heres, Hola, RBA, Grupo Zeta, etc). These companies compete on the coverage of the mass consumer market (celebrity magazines, women’s titles, decoration, lifestyle, ...) and in the continuous search for emerging sectors.

Magazine and newspaper markets
Over the past few years the market has seen a decline in sales and circulation figures of weekly TV and political interest magazines, while the celebrity magazine market has remained stable. At the same time there has been a visible increase in monthly magazines,particularly in the more recent segments such as decoration, travel and lifestyle. The daily newspaper market represents a sales volume of 580 million copies and its sales value is around 550 million euros. The main national daily newspapers are ABC (Vocento), El Mundo (Unedisa), El País (Grupo Prisa), El Periódico (Grupo Zeta), La Razón (Planeta) and La Vanguardia (Grupo Godo) for general information. The daily sports papers also form an important part of the market. The main sports news titles are As(Prisa), Marca (Recoletos), El Mundo Deportivo (Grupo Godo), and Sport(Grupo Zeta). Here again the regional and local press has gained in importance over recent years. Also over the past five years Spain has seen the appearance of free newspapers, which began with the arrival of the Scandinavian groups Metro and 20 Minutes. In the meantime publishers of paid newspapers have started publishing free newspapers such as Qué¡ (Recoletos) and AND (Planeta). The circulation figures of these free papers have rapidly increased in the years since their introduction. The paid newspapers have introduced all kinds of promotional products that are sold together with the daily papers. Of these the most important ones are books, CDs and DVDs. This has become normal practice and all publishers of daily newspapers are forced to continue with such promotions.

Legal aspects
In Spain fixed prices are defined and applied by the publisher, and there is no special regulation regarding this, in contrast to the book sector where the fixed prices are regulated by law. Regarding the levels of margin applied to the points of sales, it sets a discount between 20% and 25% of the cover price. The recent introduction of a Spanish law explicitly banning the sale of tobacco in newsstands has had a profound impact. Only newsstands located in public areas are allowed to have cigarette vending machines, but not to sell cigarettes through their press outlets. For many sales points this has meant a significant reduction in turnover, due to the diminished amount of products that in the past attracted passing trade and other potential customers.

Distribution
The wholesale distribution of publications in Spain is generally divided into two levels of distribution. On the one hand there are national distribution companies who offer their services to publishers and guarantee the distribution of their editorial products all over Spain, on the other hand there are local distribution companies that deliver the publications they receive from their suppliers (which can be national distributors or the publishers directly) to the sales points. The local distributors work in set territories on an exclusivity basis for the publications they distribute. Among the main national distributors are Comercial Atheneum, Coedis,Dispaña, Dispesa Logintegral, Logista and S.G.E.L. These companies are part of the «Unión de Distribuidores Nacionales de Ediciones» (UDNE), a trade association defending the interests of the national distribution of books, magazines and newspapers. There are about 100 local distributors throughout Spain. These can be divided into three major groups: - Independent distributors that started off as a family business and are now in the third generation. These are mostly present in specific provinces or regions. - Local delegations of national distributors, the biggest being S.G.E.L., Logista and Comercial Atheneum, which are present in several regions across the country. - Distributors working for the major newspaper groups. They have experienced a strong market foothold over the years creating new businesses and taking over independent distributors. All local distributors are integrated in the «Asociación Nacional de Distribuidores de Publicaciones» (ANDP), a trade association representing the interests of local distributors. UDNE as well as ANDP are both part of the «Federación de Asociaciones Nacionales de Distribuidores de Ediciones» (FANDE), the umbrella organisation representing book and press distribution in Spain.

Sales points
At present there are about 27.000 press outlets in Spain. The influence of newsstand chains remains very limited among them, while the independent newsstand owner is most common, together with local associations defending their interests towards the local distributors. Over the past ten years the number of press outlets has decreased significantly (in 1995 around 32.000 outlets were operational), due to the decline in the press market. However, there still remains a vast network of local shops in the high street for a large part of the population, offering a wide selection of products for unpremeditated buyers looking for their magazine or newspaper. 75.2% of the total turnover of press products are sold at newsstands, 19.8% via chains and bookshops, 2.8% via supermarkets, and 1.2% through other channels. In recent years the introduction of promotions with the newspapers and the increase in sales of non-press products (phone cards, recharging, CDs, DVDs etc.) have partly compensated the loss in press products with regard to the total turnover, but they don’t offer the same profitability for each product that is sold. Today, there are areas where it is necessary for the whole chain to cooperate with the sales points in order to maximise sales and to improve commercial management. Topics like standardized sizes of boxes, or the handling of promotional press products are being discussed in joint working groups of publishers, distributors and newsstands.

Buying habits
Compared to neighbouring European countries, Spain is a country with a medium level of magazine and newspaper distribution. The results of the second survey of press buying habits, which has been carried out on behalf of the ANDP and UDNE show that in 2005 60.9% of the population over 16 years were buyers of magazines and newspapers (full study data at www.fande.es). With regard to the differences in gender-specific buying habits, the percentage of men who buy newspapers is above average (58.9%), while a higher percentage of women buy magazines (32.6%).

Foreign press
With more than 52 million tourists every year, the tourist sector is very important for the Spanish economy. The distribution of foreign press in the country has turned into an activity with a large quantity of titles and copies in the market. Major companies in this field and members of Distripress are S.G.E.L., Dispaña, Comerical Atheneum, International Press Service, Iberpress and Coedis. Many of the foreign titles are printed directly in Spain (The Sun, Daily Mail and Bild being the most popular ones). A large quantity also reaches Spain by air, in which case the increasing taxes introduced by the airlines (for cargo space, security, fuel etc.) have to be covered by the Spanish distributors of these titles as they receive the loads, implying continuously increasing costs for their activities.

Author: Carlos Simó, President of FANDE