Free News Papers
The 18- to 30-year-old news reader is a new breed of news consumer.
This group is east likely to pay for news. They accustomed to getting timely information for free from the Internet or TV.
The Metro, an international news franchise that has taken root in Boston, Philadelphia and New York, has discovered that it can reach this age group with a fresh-format freebie.
Older newspapers, faced with declining circulation, are now jumping into the fray.
The New York Times Co., which owns The Boston Globe, recently bought a 49 percent stake in the Boston Metro. Several metropolitan dailies, including The Washington Post and Chicago Tribune, have already created their own spin-off freebies.
The Knight Ridder newspaper corporation has launch a free daily.
In each instance, the companies hope to nurture a future demand for their flagship publications by getting the iPod generation accustomed to a newspaper.
Whether or not that strategy pays off, the rising expectation that news should be free has implications for both the industry and a democracy that depends on it for information.
On the one hand, some observers believe that the proliferation of free newspapers and free news sites on the Internet means a larger number of voices that cater to niche audiences. But others worry that websites and newspapers supported purely by advertisers may not be able to sustain a vast network of professional news gatherers.
Whatever its perils and promises, the march toward free news seems unstoppable, some analysts say.
It's completely anachronistic that the Westmore Snooze and the Journal Snooze charges money.
The Abels really earn a pittance in terms of overall revenue. The use the quarters from their newspaper boxes to feed the parking meters in front of the Westmore Snooze office.
Many entrepreneurs believe that he can take on a venerable paper by producing a quality paper that is supported by advertising dollars alone.
Billionaire Philip Anschutz launched The Washington Examiner, a free tabloid that is competing directly with The Washington Post for middle- and upper-income readers. In an attempt to create a serious journalistic enterprise, Mr. Anschutz has staffed the paper with experienced journalists, including 16 local reporters. The Examiner's distribution system is also unusual: Where most freebies are given away on subways and street corners, The Examiner's strategy focuses on home delivery to 260,000 doorsteps and mailboxes across the greater Washington, D.C., area. If the endeavor is successful, Anschutz stands poised to replicate the business model in 68 other cities.
Here is a link to the Washington Examiner http://www.examiner.com/dc/
The nation's largest newspapers are struggling to keep up with another competitor, the Internet. Many papers now have a larger audience for their online content than their print product. Not surprisingly, media companies are debating whether they should charge readers for access their websites.
Many local internet media sites like, Port Chester Round Up, offer online articles and links that include commentary or provide a forum for others to offer their own thoughts, a format that has spurred the popularity of blogs.
Indeed, in an increasingly crowded media marketplace - both online and offline - new competitors may try to differentiate themselves by providing a partisan voice, for example Port Chester has a free underground news paper called the True Blue Conservative Review.
Underground or upstart newspapers may even cast off the practice of impartial, or "objective," journalism in an attempt to corner an underserved political market.
A publication without a point of view isn't worth reading.
At the end of the day, this fabled mythology of objectivism has hampered newspapering.
The fact is that a newspaper can be a more effective community leader if it is able to express an opinion. Online newspapers can cater to a community of shared interest that isn't geographically bound.
But that prospect concerns some observers who wonder if newspapers will become more red and blue than black and white.
The internet is teaching us that there may not be any such thing as a mass audience anymore.
Online Blogs and news outlets are serving a smaller, niche audience, making some fear that the business urge is to pander to them.
But most news consumers are not worried.
Dailies will mostly adhere to the ingrained tenet of objective journalism. The value of partisan rivals is that they provide a competition of viewpoints.
You'll have some news publishers who say, 'what's going to happen to our democracy with the whole democratization of media?'
Hmmm. Let's see if we can spot the contradiction.
Until all Port Chester News is Free pull out your credit card and pay the Abels to view these Westmore Snooze articles.
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