More free stuff

http://www.gazette.com/articles/gazette_52210___article.html/news_small.html

The Colorado Springs Gazette announces plans for a free paper targeted toward the downtown area, west side and Manitou Springs.

"This is meant to be a 10-minute publication people can read while they're having a bagel," said Jeff Thomas, The Gazette's executive editor. "The Gazette is going to remain a place where they can get a full course meal of (news) when they want it."

We get the Gazette at my office and I guarantee it's no more than a 10-minute read six days out of the week. Somedays it's not that much.

If free on the internet isn't the answer, how is free on paper going to help?

 

When you pay 50¢ (or $1.00, in the case of the DMN) for a paper, all you're paying for is the cost of delivery.

Speaking of the DMN ... they tried this a few years ago with a free daily called Quick. Needless to say, Quick is now a weekly.

 

And still losing money, according to DMN's quarterly statement released this week.

 

I think you'll see more of this. Doesn't D.C. have a free daily tabloid now? Thought I'd heard that.

 

D.C. does have a free tab.

I flipped through it every day on vacation a couple of years ago and was not impressed. It was something to read to kill the time on the train, but I got little to nothing out of it.

 

That's not very quick. Can there be a worse name for a weekly?

 

Yes. The Hungry Horse News!