As always, Peter Kirwan makes a good point. The problem is, frees are more vulnerable to the advertising cycle than paid-fors.
Which means that as the latter go down models for creating sustainable frees will inevitably emerge.
They may not look much like what we have now, and will doubtless be produced and distributed in cheaper ways, but as long as smart distribution models like he mentions exist, and more to the point serve well the needs of advertisers, alongside editorial that’s worth reading (let’s not forget that!) free papers will still feature in the media mix.
