A leading Bulgarian media provider dropped plans to distribute a free daily under strong pressure from a rival.

Economedia, publisher of Dnevnik daily and Capital weekly, said it abandoned plans to publish a free daily after German Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, owner of the two national papers with the largest circulation in Bulgaria, openly threatened to undermine the initiative.

"Is the death of free press near?" and "About the difference between the daily and the free daily", ran the headlines of WAZ-owned "Trud" and "24 Hours" dailies on Thursday. The newspapers threatened they will push Economedia project out of the market by running a similar free daily.

"The day when such a daily is launched on the market, we will offer a competitive product. We will not aim to compete for a market share, but stop from publishing similar papers. The day this so-called newspaper is not on the market, we will stop ours too!"

According to WAZ, free dailies do not serve the readers as they offer them "pseudo-journalism" that just "fill in the space between advertisements".

"The Bulgarian market has not developed to the stage, when business goals are achieved only with the tools of market economy and the conditions of loyal competition," a statement of Economedia reads.

Days ago Rupert Murdoch, the Australian media tycoon, revealed plans to distribute London Lite, a new free evening paper, to 400,000 commuters in central London.

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