Jon Lund, the head of the Danish Internet Advertising Bureau, and I had dinner in Norway last week and he told me the chilling story of the crazy free newspaper war in Denmark that almost killed everyone involved. I thought it was an important cautionary tale of Free gone wrong, and I encouraged him to write it up on his blog.
He did, and it’s well worth reading. I’ve excerpted (and lightly edited) the basic story below, but it’s worth reading it straight from the source to get Jon’s analysis, along with a lot of links to other reports on this disaster. Short form: the attempt by a half-dozen newspaper publishers to “out-free” a free Icelandic paper that entered the market ended up costing the collective newspaper industry in Denmark more than $150 million dollars and the bankruptcy of three newspapers.
And yes, this all started with the same Icelandic investors who helped take down the world economy.
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May 6th, 2009 → 9:07 am @ Dadi
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