New N.C. free daily really costs 50 cents

One of our readers in North Carolina has tipped us off to the fact that the Mount Airy (N.C.) Messenger has a cover price of 50 cents, according to the PDFs of each day's paper found at its website. We reported Aug. 13 that the paper was free based on this account in the Winston Salem Journal, which said, "The first edition of The Messenger arrived July 9 in Mount Airy, which has a population of about 8,000. It publishes Monday through Friday. Home delivery is free." We've got e-mails out to Messenger managers. Stay tuned.