The free daily story must be told!

EDITORIAL
Free dailies are incredibly popular among readers. Ask any publisher of a free daily and they'll tell you that they can't print enough of them. People like free news. And those who favor free dailies fall into the coveted 18-34 demo. In other words, free dailies are the perfect fit for regional and national advertisers who are blowing their money on internet and TV.

To most of you, I'm preaching to the choir. But this is a message that needs to get out to ad buyers.

Those ad buyers might say, "I can reach those people on the internet." Really? In the typical circulation area of a free daily, an advertiser would have to buy ads on hundreds of websites to reach as many eyeballs as the free paper. And as more sites are launched online, this fractionalization only works to the advantage of free newspapers. When it comes to reaching readers in a particular geographic area, nobody can beat us.

But we need somebody to tell that story. In London, Viscount Rothermere's Associated Newspapers is launching a trade campaign called "Metro Creates" to showcase that free daily's advertising services to agencies, according to the advertising trade website Brand Republic. The campaign aims to draw attention to Metro Londonr's advertising opportunities, including glossy wraps, tactical ads, front-page stickers, 3-D ads and silver ink ads.

Brand Republic says:

Metro is distributing 230 Metro branded Dualit toasters to senior agency figures, which will be accompanied by two toast-shaped hardback books titled "Fresh Out" and "Fresh In." The books will detail the paper's advertising opportunities and feature its most recent paper and online creative ads, highlighting various brands that have advertised within Metro.

Metro will send the books, packaged in branded sandwich bags, to a further 2,000 creative and media agency contacts, Brand Republic reports. The recipients will have the chance to win one of 20 additional Dualit toasters.

Metro launched the campaign after meeting with a number of creative agencies.

Are free dailies in the U.S. meeting with agencies and talking about things like this? Madison Avenue needs to know our story -- agencies (and their cilents) deserve to know how much more effective free dailies are than paid papers in the same areas.

Your feedback to this editorial is welcomed and encouraged. E-mail me at free-daily@hotmail.com.