Free newspapers are a major force in print, particularly in Europe, where two-thirds of the 42 million copies every workday are published.

Piet Bakker, one of the world's leading researchers on the subject, provided an overview of the free newspaper phenomenon and their impact on newspaper markets at the World Editor & Marketeer conference in Amsterdam.

Some of his findings:

- The number of people abandoning paid-for newspapers for free newspapers is minimal.

- Free newspapers don't necessarily reach the target audience they claim to reach.

"Every free newspaper says something like, 'our audience is young, affluent, well networked, time starved and cash rich.' But half of this is bogus -- there are very few free newspapers that have a 50 percent readership in their target group," Bakker said. "It is younger than paid-for newspapers, but not predominantly young. Nobody is denied a free newspaper."

Nor are they necessarily affluent. "There simply aren't 100 million 20-year-old investment bankers," said Bakker, professor of cross media content at the Research Center for Communication and Journalism at the Hogeschool in the Netherlands.

- They bring new readers to newspapers -- half of free newspaper readers are new readers, while half read both print and free titles. "On the other hand, we see very few moving from free to paid," he said.

"Free newspapers really find new readers, but they find them in groups who didn't read before -- people who are not wealthy and have fewer resources," he said.

- The free newspaper is diversifying with sports, quality, "lite" models of paid-for titles, local papers and weekend editions entering the market. Bakker said sports titles have proven to be a poor model that has failed in some markets.

"Perhaps it is the lack of advertising in this category," he said. "Men love sports, but in many cases they're not in charge of the financial decisions in their households."

- Free newspapers generally face competition from other free papers in their markets, start-up costs are rising and it generally takes three to five years to reach a break-even point. On the other hand, there are positive market forces to encourage them -- their target audience is growing, newspaper advertising is liked and valued by consumers, and the free newspaper is now an accepted model.

More information on free papers can be found at NewspaperInnovation.com, Bakker's Web site dedicated to research on free newspapers.

Summaries of presentations at the World Editor & Marketeer conference can be found here.