Is the answer for young readers free newspapers?

Is the best way to get "The Young People" to read the newspaper giving it to them for free?

France says OUI! (That would be yes. And sorry for the cliche, but it was too good to pass up.)

According the the New York Times, the French government is making a big push to get young readers back into the news by offering a free 1-year subscription to a newspaper for anyone 18 to 24-years-old.

French youth will have their pick of Le Monde, Le Figaro, the International Herald Tribune and more.

The program comes with a $22.5 million price tag paid by the government over three years, with money kicked in from the newspapers as well.

France's newspapers are suffering from the same decline in readership that have hurt papers here in the U.S. and around the world. (Some would even say circulation at U.S. papers is "plunging off a cliff.")
Ideally the program will work since news is already free on newspaper websites, right?

While the U.S. doesn't quite have a free newspaper system, but there is the Newspapers in Education program, which is designed to educate students and get them into newspapers early.

And how's that working out, young newspaper readers of America?

Is giving away free newspapers the way to get young people into the news, or is France throwing a lot of money at the problem only to find three years later that readership is still sinking?

What do you think?

"French Papers Aim at Younger Readers" [New York Times]

(Hat tip to MaineJosh for the link)