Extra is a 24-page section that "showcases the best in journalism and photography" and includes some regular features of the Independent such as the daily column, a cartoon strip, a cartoon, specialist pages, puzzles and the arts section along with television and radio listings and new features, one which will invite readers to send in reviews.

In this move, there are two possible results for newspapers:  

Despite touting itself as "the best in journalism and photography," Extra sounds more like a free paper, or at least a variation thereof. Instead of the quick news fix that compact-sized ubiquitous free papers give to morning commuters, Extra could appeal to those that want some more commentary and living in the morning.

Even with free papers, many people already know what's going to be in them news-wise, from watching broadcast news or browsing the Internet the previous day. If a publication like Extra could provide relevant commentary on that news along with "specialist pages" and still combine it with free-paper features like puzzles and listings, it could appeal to some free paper readers and win the Independent some circulation. 

But if the supplement does prove popular, this means that the Independent could be positioning itself to spin Extra off as a freesheet. With the proliferation of freesheets in Britain, other top-shelf papers could follow, for example the Manchester Evening News just went free for that very reason.

The other possible result of such a supplement, however extreme, is that Extra could eventually become the Independent. Think about it. As circulations dwindle (even after format change), news is posted immediately online, and paper costs are soaring, pundits have predicted that newspapers will cut back their production to several times a week instead of daily and will provide more expert views than factual news in print. The principal source for news would become the paper's website.

Financially, this could be worrying for newspapers seeing as websites are mostly free. But if Extra were to become that scaled back print paper as predicted, the Independent isn't all that badly positioned to earn money on line. It has already implemented a pay system for some of its online material.

Source: Independent