In 1987, "la Repubblica" launched a prize competition called "Portfolio", a type of stock market-based lottery. Readers were encouraged to buy the newspaper daily in order to check share value. The prize turned out to cost more than the supplements earned, the latter increasing sales for one or two days a week only. "la Repubblica" expanded by almost 200,000 copies within three months, stretching to a total daily average of nearly 700,000 . At that point, ""la Repubblica" became the best-selling Italian newspaper.