<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Steve M:
The somewhat odd policy regarding hotel newspapers may have more to do with the newspaper than with the hotel. If you have the option of refusing the newspaper and having 50 cents deducted from your bill, then the newspaper can count all of the ones that do get delivered as "paid readers" rather than give-aways, even though in fact they may be giving them to the hotel for free in return for supporting the "refuse and credit me 50 cents" procedure. The more paid subscribers a newspaper has, the higher they can charge for advertising.</font>
This conjecture is well-made, but inaccurate. The hotels pay for the papers (at a substantially reduced rate) whether the guests pay for them or not. Furthermore, most newspapers's ad rates are set on the basis of paid circulation, not actual subscribers. Finally, some US papers (USA Today is a particularly egregious offender in this area) count "shadow circulation" (people who read papers they didn't pay for themselves) as circulation, too. This way, the paper can count all the copies it sells to your hotel, as well as all the copies the hotel sells to you, thereby counting some papers twice.