University of Denver students will be getting free newspapers for 30 days, after which time the AUSA Senate will decide whether to keep the giveaway going by underwriting it at a cost of about $30,000 a year.

During weekdays, students can pick up USA Today, Denver Post or the Financial Times at dispenser throughout campus for free. At the end of the pilot, readership will be evaluated and a decision made whether to use a portion of the student activity fee to make newspapers available to students on a permanent basis.

The newspaper giveaway is offered by the USA Today Readership Program, which has inaugurated similar projects at more than 250 campuses nationwide. Doug Fraser, regional manager of the program who was at DU last week, said the program’s purpose is to raise student awareness of current events and encourage students to develop a habit of picking up and reading a newspaper.

If the program is adopted, the revenues would be collected by USA Today and distributed to the participating newspapers. Fraser admitted that such revenues are “a drop in the bucket” for the newspapers. USA Today, for example, has a circulation of about $2.3 million readers daily.

Jill Pulver, financial account manager in the Denver metro office of USA Today, said studies show that people develop a habit of whether they will become lifelong newspaper readers by age 30. If college students begin reading newspapers when they are 18 to 22 there is a much higher probability that they will become newspaper readers when they leave school.