Free media set to grow in size and quality

by Jacquie Bowser, Brand Republic 18-Apr-08, 11:00

LONDON - The abundance of free media titles in the UK will continue to grow in the future, forcing the quality of the content to improve as its owners try to compete for consumers' attention.

The prediction was made by William Higham, at research firm Next Big Thing, who was speaking at the 'Generation Free' conference hosted by thelondonpaper yesterday.

He suggested that consumers in the future will not be choosing between buying a title and picking up a free one, but instead, will be faced with a decision about which free title to choose.

A panel of "generation free" consumers, described as those who no longer pay for their media, seemed to indicate this trend had already begun as some of them revealed they choose free magazines ShortList and Sport over the Metro newspaper on Thursdays and Fridays.

Members of the panel said it was the targeted content of the free magazines that appealed to them more and they felt the content was of higher quality.

Thelondonpaper's conference follows the launch of yet another free monthly magazine this week. The Other Side is targeted at commuters on London's Northern Line and will contain news, opinions and reviews on events happening in the surrounding areas.

There are now 52 countries across the world that have freesheets, according to David Lucas of YouGov, who also revealed that Europe now has 122 free titles "at last count".