Free newspapers

This morning I saw my father bring out the free copy of summarised news.
What are their intentions?

- Attract brand loyalty to the parent newspaper.

- Update the working population who has no time to read newspapers except when they are travelling to work?

- Compete with rival newspaper agencies to gain entrance to the publishing arena?

- try to bring about or cultivate the traditions of japanese where they would leave newspapers they have bought and read on the seats of public vehicles for others to pick up and read?
Does this work? Or amount to littering? People like dad still takes home or throw to dustbin after finished reading.

I did research on the aims of those papers from sph and mediacorp.

Here is the one from SPH on "Wo Bao"

MY PAPER aims to present up-to-date insights into urban life-trends, inspiration, entertainment, lifestyle, work trends, news and issues close to the heartbeat of the young and busy working adults in Singapore that is snappy and easy to read. Certain news snippets, terms and names may be in English. This caters to readers who are bilingual and allows them to stay in touch with the Chinese language in a relaxed and enjoyable way.
A paper for readers by readers, my paper's uniqueness lies in its capacity to encourage and embrace readers' involvement in shaping the product. Readers can participate in the creation of news content for a mainstream newspaper. Readers can contribute short articles, join reporters in conducting interviews, share their opinions and vote for their favourite stories every week. The paper's tagline "M Life, My Thoughts, My Say" encapsulates the editorial philosophy of reader empowerment and participation.
As part of the publication's commitment to encourage interactivity, readers are invited to correspond with the editorial team via the newspaper's website at www.mypaper.sg. In this website, readers can also access the blogs of MY PAPER's editorial team, which is made up of a group of vibrant and dynamic journalists with an average age of 30 years.

(Courtesy of SPH website)

The daily circulation is 120,000. Quite significant for a small publishing material like this.

Another free newspapers "Today" which was released under Mediacorp.
It has an online edition as well as an weekend edition.

Here is an excerpt on what Mediacorp has to say on the newspapers.

MediaCorp Press, the publishing business unit of the MediaCorp Group, represents the Group's official foray into newspaper publishing. With this new venture, TODAY and Weekend TODAY hit the newsstand, reaching out to busy professionals constantly on the move with little time to plough through the papers.

TODAY is a compact newspaper with quality content that is distributed free in Singapore, Mondays to Saturdays. Launched in November 2000, TODAY has established a reputation for sharply angled news reports and thought-provoking analyses and commentaries, living up to its slogan "We set you thinking". The paper's news comment columns - written by staff and a wide range of contributors and covering both local and global issues - are a particular strength.

TODAY's daily readership is around 550,000, with more than half its readers being professionals, managers, executives, and business people. The paper is distributed to selected homes, and it is also available at MRT stations, bus interchanges, selected food and beverage outlets, shopping malls and other public areas.

Weekend TODAY, developed as a longer and leisurely read for the weekends, is distributed to more than 150,000 homes and available free-of-charge at the usual distribution outlets.

TODAY online TODAY online (www.todayonline.com) targets over 300,000 broadband and 500,000 dial-up users in Singapore for the latest news in Singapore and around the world.
(Courtesy of Mediacorp)

As it can be seen, the publishing world of newspapers, though it is the oldest media in Singapore, still incurs competition from various media players in a small country like us.
No matter how old the media may be, it is still one that is the most influential and widest circulation that's worthwhile fighting for.
They aim at the different needs of the same audience so formatting in both papers are significantly different.
I have seen commuters grabbing 2 newspapers at the same time. Seen like commuters are the ones who are benefitting from this tug-of-war.
May be the market is just nice for small scale war like this while the monopoly of mainstream newspapers still lies in the hands of SPH. This is a refreshing phenonmena for a change here.
As I recalled tabloid newspapers are also a hit with the people in other countries.
May be we may have enter a new age with this.

I had another angle of viewing this phenonmena. In the past, we used to hear how the rich to show off their wealth and philanthrophy, set up newspapers for their countrymen, informing and updating them of their hometowns. I wonder how this may have set in for both companies who gave out free newspapers.
A show of philanthrophy?
Closing the gap of rich and poor? Illiterate and literate?
OR encourage a act of sharing with others?
Hmm....worthwhile doing some research on how people feel about it though.
A possible research topic? Or done till death??
I am not sure.
Worthwhile taking a look.