Do New Free Dailies Mean Sun Is Setting For Paid Newspapers?

DO NEW FREE DAILIES MEAN SUN IS SETTING FOR PAID NEWSPAPERS?
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Joseph T. Hallinan joseph.hallinan@wsj.com]
When the Baltimore Examiner, America's newest daily newspaper, hits 250,000 stoops and driveways today, it will boast a bigger circulation than the 169-year-old Baltimore Sun. Of course, no one is sure what that quarter-million papers will really mean to advertisers because they will be delivered unsolicited and at no charge. But as newspapers struggle to woo advertisers and keep readers in the Internet age, the Examiner stands out as arguably the boldest experiment yet in America's deepening flirtation with free daily newspapers. "Can a mature subscription-based daily paper -- even one as respected as the Sun -- be vulnerable to an upstart that's giving news away?" says Thomas Kunkel, dean of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. "It really and truly is a very interesting and open question." Free commuter papers -- some started by established publishers such as Tribune Co. and Washington Post Co. -- have spread to Boston, Chicago, New York and Washington. And the Examiner's Denver-based parent, privately held Clarity Media Group, has launched breezy, tabloids similar to Baltimore's in San Francisco and Washington.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114420238830617334.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
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