What newspapers could do better with free subscriptions

Newspapers have made a number of forays into free distribution of their product. From the free youth oriented tabloids like RedEye in Chicago to Dallas's home delivered Briefing, newspapers have tried to use free light versions of the paper to either supplement or encourage full subscriptions. Or at least that seemed to be the original plan. Current business models seem to acknowledge that the "trade up" is unlikely and has moved toward these as portfolio products.

I still think that newspapers could do a lot better with the free model by looking to other products that do it fairly well.

Let's take trade magazines. A great number of these are provided to people free of charge. However, in exchange a certain amount of business and personal information must be given, and re-verified every year. Advertisers know exactly what they are buying. And since the subscriptions are at least requested, there's some semblance of engagement. Far better than the carpet bombing approach of bonus days, advertiser paid circulation, or home delivered free new-spam-pers. Certainly the circulation numbers would be lower, but I'm fairly certain that the circulation that goes straight into the garbage is of no value anyhow.

The second lesson they should look to is their own internet division. Registration on newspaper websites may be waning, but the data can be used to introduce other products and start a conversation. Ironically, registration forms are a frequent complaint from users, but the sites keep using them. The internet is about targeted information, and its pretty clearly become the competitor that's eating their lunch.

Data is valuable. Newspapers in the garbage can are not.