Growth of free newspapers slows down

Free newspapers, the fastest growing segment in the newspaper industry, experienced readership declines last year for the first time. Readership of Toronto’s two major freebies, Metro and 24 Hours, fell by 11.7 per cent and 1.1 per cent respectively. At the same time, the Newspaper Audience Databank Inc. report revealed that more people are getting their news online than ever before.