Study Suggests Free Papers Complement Paid Papers

By: Jennifer Saba Readers of free newspapers are generally younger and more ethnically diverse than readers of paid papers, but they are not overwhelmingly within the 18 to 34 demographic, according to a new study from Scarborough Research.

The study, which was presented Wednesday at the 2005 Worldwide Readership Research Symposium in Prague, looked at four markets with free papers: Boston, New York, Chicago, and Dallas.

Research found that readers of free dailies do so, not because of price, but more because of their commuting habits. In fact, most readers of free papers are also reading one or more paid dailies.

"Most free daily readers are strong newspapers readers -- both free and paid," James Collins, senior vice president of information systems and custom analytics at Scarborough, said in a statement. "Rather than competing with their paid counterparts, free dailies are being used in a complementary fashion by most of their readers."

However, the study notes that given the high levels of duplication between paid and free readership, it is unlikely that reading free papers will bolster the reading of paid ones. But free papers aren't cutting into the readership of paid newspapers. In New York, Boston, Chicago, and Dallas, the study suggests the levels of readership for the major paid newspapers have not suffered.

"If price was a major factor in the consumption of full-featured paid dailies, the introduction of a free [or low-cost] product would be expected to decrease the consumption of individual paid ones while preserving the overall levels of readership," the study said.

For example, in New York, research found that about 78% of am New York readers --people who said they read the free paper "yesterday" -- read one or more paid newspapers within the same time frame. Seventy-two percent of Metro New York readers are doing likewise.

In New York, the free dailies are seeing duplication within their readership ranks: Approximately 51% of amNew York readers also read Metro New York. And 52% of Metro New York readers read am New York.

In Chicago, the duplication between free paper readers and paid ones is even higher. Less than 10% of RedEye and Red Streak (both free papers) don't read a paid newspaper.

In Dallas, people who read the free paper Quick read paid newspapers in far higher proportions than the market average, 75% versus 40%.

Boston has the highest levels of unduplicated readership between paid and free papers at 37%.