On being the place to be

Chris Anderson recently wrote a great article about why free is the future of business. One of the sidebars talks about how Prince “debuted his new album, Planet Earth, by stuffing a copy — retail value $19 — into 2.8 million issues of the Sunday edition of London’s Daily Mail.” Prince went on to make a bunch of money selling out 21 shows at London’s 02 Arena, but the part that almost slipped by me was how the Daily Mail newspaper defined their success. Though circulation went up, they didn’t immediately make enough money to cover the cost of the giveaway. Still though, they considered it a success because it made them the place to be:

Managing editor Stephen Miron says the gimmick worked editorially and financially: “Because we’re pioneers, advertisers want to be with us.”