Growth of free dailies charted by academic

Here's a link to a paper by Amsterdam University's Piet Bakker that charts the growth of free daily newspapers. The paper heavily focuses on Europe and ignores early free dailies in the U.S. dating back to the 1970s. While talking about the Metro International chain (which still isn't profitable after seven years in business), he ignores the profitable free dailies in places like Palo Alto, Calif., Aspen, Colo., and Conway, N.H., to name just a few. But his conclusion is one we can all take to the bank -- "Because free dailies have also proven to be attractive to a younger audience, the future looks relatively bright."