Free has always been a compelling price point for the consumer, but in media – outside broadcasting, at least – it had not been seen as a route to commercial and critical success. That began to change after Daily Mail and General Trust’s Metro proved that it was possible to make money out of a free daily newspaper, unlike its paid-for sister title the Evening Standard.

Metro spawned a string of imitators, but the trend to giveaway media is spreading. Last week Prince gave away his new album Planet Earth via The Mail on Sunday; if Mike Soutar and his club of investors have their way, the concept will be extended into consumer magazines in an attempt to win the mass audiences that advertisers require.

In today’s crowded media market, computer games jostle for men’s leisure time with traditional media and the newsagent’s shelves are stuffed full of magazines. That makes it doubly hard for a new title to get much visibility, particularly when it is aimed at men, who remain more reluctant to buy magazines than women.

However, free distribution – Mr Soutar is talking about handing out more than half a million copies in the street and at gyms and stores – is an attractive way of achieving scale, attention and, therefore, profitability. After all, Prince’s giveaway reached 2.8 million homes; had the album been put on sale, it would have done very well to shift 20,000 in week one. The freebie may well drive fans back to the artist’s catalogue, too.

The problem is that the giveway model has hardly been a route to critical success. It would be hard to argue that London’s freesheets are of the quality of a paid-for title. Only a brave critic would say that Prince’s new album is as good as Purple Rain.

The Soutar plan, though, is a little different – promising editorial far better than the property puffs that many associate with a free magazine and the paid-for entertainment promised by the likes of IPC’s Nuts and Emap’s Zoo. That objective is a departure from other free business plans, but if Mr Soutar and his investors can accept lower profit margins, it could yet succeed.

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