Editor’s note: Newspapers & Technology this month begins a column that examines the $4 billion free and community newspaper industry. This first installment, written by Association of Free Community Papers Executive Director Craig McMullin, discusses the industry’s marketing reach.

People who see the local alternative weekly or free paper as landfill waiting to happen are missing a much bigger picture.

McMullin

Indeed, the free paper industry is a robust, multibillion-dollar business that reaches millions of readers each week.

Free papers include a diverse mix of publications, from traditional shopping guides distributed by carrier to mail to alternative newsweeklies and community newspapers.

The key that links us all is that readers do not pay to read our publications.

 

Some facts to consider:

•Circulation is growing — Often overlooked or grouped with paid newspapers, our industry is estimated to have $4 billion in revenues, more than 100 million in weekly circulation and employs thousands. Unlike our paid counterparts, our circulation is growing and has been for decades.

The Circulation Verification Council, which tracks the circulation of free papers, said that readership for papers that have participated in audits for the past two years is up 3 percent. Growth is even stronger after tallying the number of new titles being added every year.

These growth rates, in the face of the continuing downward circulation trend suffered by most paid newspapers, shows that readers are increasingly looking to their local free paper for information.

Our industry began, in part, because paid newspapers didn’t want to deliver advertising materials to non-subscribers. Newspaper publishers knew that subscriptions are purchased as much for advertising information as for editorial. That means they didn’t want to give away advertising information for free. Thus, the birth of free papers in the late 1940s and 1950s, paralleling the economic boom of post-war America.

Often, these publications were run by mom and dad and published using a mimeograph machine on the kitchen table. From those humble beginnings sprung a highly professional, efficiently run publishing industry reaching nearly every household in the country.

•Free papers are widely read — Free papers are widely read by all age groups, all demographic groups and all educational levels. Circulation audits and readership studies attest to the validity of free paper readership despite misconceptions that surround the industry. Free paper readers are often cast as “old, poor and uneducated.” However, independent readership surveys indicated that this portrayal is very wrong.

In recent years, publications with circulation totaling more than 72 million homes have been audited with independent readership studies verifying the strength of free paper readership.

According to CVC audits and readership surveys, free publications reach 97.1 percent of American households. More than 75 percent are read and 74 percent of consumers say free papers influence their purchasing decisions. These are phenomenal scores when compared to paid publications. In many cases, the local free paper is directly influencing more readers to purchase advertiser’s products than the entire circulation of the local paid paper.

The charts above show the combined results of these audits. Each graph shows the breakdown of free paper readers compared to the breakdown of the U.S. population in general. Where free paper readers exceed the general population, free papers score comparatively higher readership in this bracket. Where free paper readers are lower than the general population, free papers have comparatively fewer readers in this bracket.

•Myth: Only old people read free papers.

Fact: Free paper readers are generally between 25 and 55 years of age.

•Myth: Only poor people read free papers.

Fact: Free paper readers are generally middle- and upper-middle-class Americans.

•Myth: Only the uneducated read free papers.

Fact: Free paper readers are highly educated, earning degrees from high school and college.

•Increasing value — The free paper industry continues to grow and develop. Readership and circulation are up and increasingly, readers are looking at free papers to make buying decisions. Clearly, a media strategy that does not include free paper distribution is a strategy that’s overlooking a crucial portion of the market.

Source: Circulation Verification Council
The charts, right and below, indicate that readers of free publications earn more money, are better educated and reflect a more desirable advertiser demographic than the general population.