Valérie-Anne Bleyen and Leo Van Hove at Vrije Universiteit Brussel conducted a study of 87 newspaper Web sites in nine Western European countries in 2006, 2008 and 2009, the latest SFN's report, New Revenue Models for Newspaper Companies, reported.

The study categorised the sites into the following groups: free, fee light and fee+. "Fee light" refers to newspaper sites where all the news, columns and archived articles (if available) are free, and where the PDF version is the only paid-for content on the site. "Fee+" on the other hand, refers to sites that offer something other than a PDF against payment.

According to the study, the share of the free news sites across the nine countries increased from 19.5 percent in 2006 to 25.6 percent in 2008. However, in 2009 the growth of free sites seemed to slow, as it only increased slightly to 26.8 percent.

Luxembourg, Spain, Belgium and France are the countries with the biggest growth of free sites. In Luxembourg, the amount of free sites jumped from 33.3 in 2006 and 2008 to 66.7 in 2009. In Spain, the figures boosted from nothing in 2006 to 37.5 percent in 2009.

In Belgium, they grew from 11.1 percent in 2006 to 22.2 percent in 2008. In France, the numbers went up from 9.1 percent in 2006 to 18.2 percent in 2008.

In the Netherlands and Germany, however, the numbers went down, and they fluctuated in the United Kingdom and Italy.

Regarding "Fee light" sites, the average share went up from 23.2 percent to 34.1 percent in 2008, and 39 percent in 2009. The numbers went up in the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, France, the Netherlands and Belgium, but fluctuated in Luxembourg.

"Fee+" sites, however, lost in share from 57.3 percent in 2006 to 40.2 percent in 2008 and 34.1 percent in 2009. The numbers dropped in Luxembourg, Spain, Italy, France and Belgium, but fluctuated in the Netherlands, according to the report, released by SFN and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers.

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