AM New York publisher Christopher Barnes (left) says demand is strong for 325,000 copy free daily. "We could give out as many papers as we can print right now, the problem we have is running out of copies sometimes. It has been a success since the day it launched," Barnes told the Web site journalism.co.uk. And demand has remained high despite the rollout of the paper's Web site, where stories often are reported first. He says the business model of the Web site and free daily are much the same -- reliant upon advertising and reaching a young, urban audience. "When I'm out explaining AM New York to advertisers, I like to compare it to a Web site and say people aren't necessarily paying for this, in the same way they are not paying for a website, but they are making the effort to pick it up and engage with the content," Barnes said. "It's really similar to a web experience because of the audience. We have young urban professionals of the interactive generation, cash rich, time poor, who are not really engaged with traditional media — they are our readers. We give them a 20 to 30 minute read on the subway so that they are not going to have to flick through a six-section newspaper."
