MediaBuyerPlanner: Consumers who receive unpaid subscriptions to upscale city and regional magazines are far less inclined to read them and don't value them as much as magazines they pay for, according to a study by Monroe Mendelsohn Research commissioned by Emmis Communications, MediaPost reports.

The study looked at the impact of freebie magazines on the market for paid circulation magazines. The result: a majority of 2,250 randomly selected consumers surveyed in key markets where such magazines are published either were unaware of the free magazines or said they did not read them.

In Dallas, for example, where Emmis publishes paid circulation Texas Monthly, only 4.5 percent of people in that market say they had "never head of" that magazine. That compares with as much as 80 percent who were unfamiliar with free circulation rival Brilliant.

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