Unlike the mainstream broad-sheet and tabloid
newspapers, the user can take home a free-sheeter free
of cost and with no obligation, save the ethical one to
read it. There is no fine print to this free offer. The
offer does not read 'Do not pay anything for it now'
nor 'Nothing free'. The reader obtains a copy of the
free sheeter absolutely free of any financial
consideration, present or future.
There is also a greater freedom of expression in a free
sheeter since the publication is not tied to the apron
strings of a business house or interest group with
vested interests. The degree of freedom available to
the editor is almost boundless, though within the
limits of decency, propriety and libel laws. The editor
cannot be allowed to declare freedom from good sense
and decency. This is possible only because of the
multifaceted funding base that finances the free
sheeter and, often, the dedication of the editorial
team. A free-sheeter does not have to toe a line that
many of its bigger cousins make their way of life.
What is a free-sheeter?
A simple description of a free-sheeter is a periodical
(daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly) that is made
available to its readers at no financial consideration
whatsoever in terms of price, subscription, membership
or donation. (I will attempt no further definition and
I do not know is a proper definition exists for a free-sheeter.)
The lowest frequency expected of a free-sheeter is an
issue a month. Frequencies less than that tend to
render a free-sheeter irrelevant and it cannot sustain
its readership. It is the readership that justifies the
existence of a free sheeter and helps to draw funds to
finance its publication. The existence of the
readership is the raison d'etre of a free-sheeter.
News Content: People do not lose interest in issues
just because the mainstream newspapers and tabloids do
not carry them on their front-pages. There is always an
interest in the 'positive' things happening around us.
There is as much interest in the fisherman who saved
six persons from drowning as there is in the one person
that drowned while swimming at a beach side resort. The
drowning hogs the headlines in the mainstream
newspapers and tabloids. There is 'space' in the
free-sheeter to portray the hero of the event, the
humble fisherman who saved six lives. People want to
read about him even if he saved them simply because of
an impulse, or just because he could not bear to see
them die! Bravery and courage do not need to be
pre-qualified or rationalized. Brave deeds have a
readership in the land of Rana Pratap, Rani of Jhansi
and Shivaji, just as in the land of Napoleon Bonaparte
or George Washington or Nelson Mandela or Winston Churchill.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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