Returning from lunch today I had to do a double take walking out of the student union. There, near the entrance, was a huge newspaper rack containing 50 to 60 copies of the local newspaper, The Kalamazoo Gazette (which, full disclosure, I have worked for in the past). The rack had just been put there — it wasn’t installed when I went in for my lunch.
Here’s the interesting part, though. The newspaper rack was not staffed by anyone and it did not use any sort of mechanism where you have to put coins in a slot. Anyone can simply take as many of the papers as he or she wants.
The catch? They are using the tip jar concept that has been widely advocated for funding independent web sites. A sign at the top says to take a copy, and donate whatever you think the paper is worth. It adds, of course, that the level of donations will determine just how long the rack stays. There is a coin slot (which wasn’t labeled very well) to deposit money.
I took one and put in a couple quarters (which is what the paper actually sells for). Not a bad idea, but one that I think will never work.
It’s not a bad idea because few students read the local paper, especially students living in dorms who make up probably 75 percent of the traffic through the student union. So they’re losing those people anyway. If they can sell them papers at near or slightly above cost, they gain by telling advertisers they are doing a better job of reaching college aged people.
On the other hand the system will likely fail for a number of reasons. Leave something out there for free for very long and the incentive to pay for it diminishes. The student newspaper is already free (being supported almost entirely by advertisements) so it’s not like the Gazette is the only place in town to get a newspaper.
Regardless, I hope they come out and say at the end of their trial period just how much money this generated. It would be interesting to know (though I’m probably dreaming — they’ll never make the results public for fear that it might prove useful their competitors).