Free papers pay for themselves

There has been a lot of debate about free newspapers - MEN, Metro - in Manchester and other cities.

How do they make a profit? Are newspapers on the way out?

Surely the demise of the NW Enquirer shows they are.

Well, not quite.

The Independent focuses on these questions and comes up with some interesting answers.

The Manchester Evening News for instance is giving away 60,000 copies daily as opposed to 6,000 sold copies before. As this targets the affluent readership the MEN advertisers want, it surely makes the advertisers more powerful and so more content.

It all adds up, even though at first glance it seems bad maths to us.