"Do Free Newspapers Make More Money Online?"

[Keyword: onlinejournalism]. Apart from anything else I'm hugely grateful to this article for introducing me to the newsletter about free daily newspapers around the world, but it also gives a fascinating rundown on how free newspapers have used the online medium - especially interesting given most newspapers' worries about whether to charge for content. Here's a taster:

"Are free newspapers making more money with their Internet sites than subscription newspapers? [Monique Van Dusseldorp] asked [Piet Bakker of the University of Amsterdam and the person behind the newsletter], who answered: "For some titles, like Dose (Canada) and Que! (Spain), which only launched in 2005, it is still too early to say anything about making money. For the others we can see two different approaches. The first is that of Metro UK (Associated Newspapers) and Metro Marknad which focus on advertising and e-commerce. In other words: services that directly lead to revenues. The other model is that of the 'One-Brand medium,' as introduced by Que! and is more or less copied by 20 Minutos (both in Spain). The brand can be accessed online and offline, and both work together and reinforce each other. The rationale behind it is not so much 'more direct revenues from the website' but more loyalty to the brand as such, which could lead to more site traffic and more income from the print publication.""