London — already the home of free papers in the morning — is now getting free sheets in the afternoon Peter Cole sums up the situation. I’m betting it will be tried again in New York.
This entry was posted on Sunday, August 27th, 2006 at 3:12 pm and was tagged newspapers.
It’s not only a cost factor, it’s also quick and easy. No digging in your pocket for change, no waiting at the newstand. It may only be saving you a few seconds but when you miss your train by a few seconds it matters. Also logistically the afternoon commute in NY is more spread out timewise than the morning commute so it may not be as cost effective to have people handing out free pm papers.
-JMoney http://velvet-sea.blogspot.com
It might be a very smart move by the dead tree folks, emulating online content which is given freely, advertisers eventually follow if the numbers are there. That’s the Google model. If you are giving it away free, no more death spiral with declining circulation numbers. Maybe. The real test will be, a few forrests later, does the public even want some of these papers free? Unfactual and biased content, the Titanic for most of MSM journalism, never crosses their minds as they re-arrange the deck chairs.
These idiots would rather fall on their swords financially than stop the agenda driven lefty spin. Look at the NYT’s. The stock has been downhill since 9/11, their corporate bonds downgraded, but their lefty lunacy gets more strident. Once FOX entered the market, what happened to CNN? The poor fools there still haven’t figured out what happened to them.
I’ll repeat, people are tired of the crap. It’s the content, stupid.
Here in Manchester, England, they’re already doing it. The Manchester Evening News (note: not “Lite” or “Free” but the actual proper paper itself) is being given away in the city centre and has been for a while now.
[...] If it's true that Web content needs to complement that of print, then the tactic of offering original content in different daily editions, as well as online, factors in heavily. Grant-Adamson's Wordblog reports that freebie paper editor Stefano Hatfield calls "a single edition each day as multiple editions … a “pre-internet idea.” Well, Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine seems to have noticed that, like Hatfield's free London Paper, "news wants to be free, it seems." [...]
It’s not only a cost factor, it’s also quick and easy. No digging in your pocket for change, no waiting at the newstand. It may only be saving you a few seconds but when you miss your train by a few seconds it matters. Also logistically the afternoon commute in NY is more spread out timewise than the morning commute so it may not be as cost effective to have people handing out free pm papers.
-JMoney
http://velvet-sea.blogspot.com
It might be a very smart move by the dead tree folks, emulating online content which is given freely, advertisers eventually follow if the numbers are there. That’s the Google model. If you are giving it away free, no more death spiral with declining circulation numbers. Maybe. The real test will be, a few forrests later, does the public even want some of these papers free? Unfactual and biased content, the Titanic for most of MSM journalism, never crosses their minds as they re-arrange the deck chairs.
Maybe news is just tired of being forced to always go left.
Tired of always going left? Who’s forcing them?
These idiots would rather fall on their swords financially than stop the agenda driven lefty spin. Look at the NYT’s. The stock has been downhill since 9/11, their corporate bonds downgraded, but their lefty lunacy gets more strident. Once FOX entered the market, what happened to CNN? The poor fools there still haven’t figured out what happened to them.
I’ll repeat, people are tired of the crap. It’s the content, stupid.
Here in Manchester, England, they’re already doing it. The Manchester Evening News (note: not “Lite” or “Free” but the actual proper paper itself) is being given away in the city centre and has been for a while now.
[...] If it's true that Web content needs to complement that of print, then the tactic of offering original content in different daily editions, as well as online, factors in heavily. Grant-Adamson's Wordblog reports that freebie paper editor Stefano Hatfield calls "a single edition each day as multiple editions … a “pre-internet idea.” Well, Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine seems to have noticed that, like Hatfield's free London Paper, "news wants to be free, it seems." [...]