A newspaper readership program that offers free newspapers to students in the residence halls may expand to the entire ISU campus.

Aaron Toye, account manager for USA Today, spoke to the Inter-Residence Hall Association Thursday about the program within the residence halls. He advocated the program’s expansion.

The readership program — which has been in existence for three years and is funded by IRHA through student fees — provides residents with free daily issues of the Des Moines Register, the New York Times, USA Today and the Chicago Tribune. The program is paid for by a $10 fee tacked on to residence hall students’ tuition.

“The ultimate goal of this program is for students to develop the readership habit,” Toye said. “Expanding the program outside the residence halls will allow all students to take advantage of the program.”

If the program is expanded to include all students, the fee would drop to $5 per student.

Toye said USA Today — which along with the Des Moines Register is owned by media corporation Gannett, Inc. — has noticed a decrease in the amount of papers being taken from the display racks in the residence halls.

The company plans to hold a one-month trial period to place the four newspapers at various locations on campus.

Annette Forbes, general manager of the Iowa State Daily, said Gannett’s readership program is misleading.

The real purpose of the program isn’t to increase student readership of newspapers, but rather to increase Gannett’s circulation numbers, Forbes said.

“It’s all about circulation,” she said. “Giving students four free newspapers a day is a lot of reading for one person.”

The amount newspapers charge to advertisers is based on its circulation.

When the circulation numbers of a newspaper owned by a large company increase, the newspaper becomes more attractive to advertisers, which could take advertising revenue and readership away from smaller, local papers competing in the same market — like the Iowa State Daily and the Ames Tribune.

“On some other campuses, we’ve seen readership programs do some damage,” Forbes said. “If the program is expanded to all students, it could harm [local newspapers].”

Toye said there is enough room on campus for national, local and student newspapers.

“I don’t think the readership program will affect the circulation of the newspapers, because it’s a totally different audience,” he said. “USA Today can provide news Iowa State Daily can’t, and vice versa.

“There’s room for all these newspapers.”