Extra, extra, read all about it-for free.

A four-week trial run for the College Newspaper Readership Program began on Monday, as students returning to select residence halls were greeted by stands offering a selection of newspapers.

Newspaper stands were placed in Griesedieck, Reinert and Marguerite halls. The selection includes: USA Today, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

“All four newspapers will be available Monday through Friday at no cost to students living in residence halls for the trial period of four weeks,” stated Lisa Trube, regional marketing manager of USA Today. “The University has the option to continue the program after this four-week trial period.”

Trube said that the number of newspapers per stand was based on a 35 percent consumption rate at other schools. During the trial run, the number of newspapers remaining at the end of the day will be recorded for evaluation at the end of the period.

The College Newspaper Readership Program is designed for residence halls and provides four newspapers-national, regional, local and campus-for students. “The expectation in general is to provide students with newspapers in order to further their education to matters off-campus,” Trube said.

The trial run is a result of an effort between USA Today, the Residence Hall Association and the Department of Residence Life. USA Today helps promote the College Newspaper Readership Program to colleges and universities throughout the nation. RHA members chose which newspapers to place on the trial stands.

Although the program is still in its first week, RHA President Loretta Kojak said she anticipates a good response from students. “I expect that residents will pick up a newspaper or two daily,” Kojak said.

John Buck, Residence Life coordinator of training and development, said that RHA will decide whether it would like to see the program continue and make its recommendation to the University.

Surveys conducted after the trial run will help determine whether enough student support for the program exists.

“Questions on the survey will indicate patterns of readership, frequency of readership and the amount of interest in that kind of service,” Buck said.

RHA selected The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal as the two national newspapers. RHA noted that several students already subscribed to these newspapers.

Kojak said that students will have the opportunity at the end of the trial to indicate other newspapers they would like to see on stands.

“We’ll have a more concrete idea of how many students are interested and what students want,” Kojak said.

“It’s been made clear in discussions that RHA and student input would be key in deciding whether or not to continue this,” said Leonard Jones, director of Residence Life.

If Saint Louis University decides to continue the program once the trial run ends, three phases-distribution, recycling and partnership efforts-will follow. Which residence halls would receive newspaper stands, the distribution period, and the cost of the program would then be determined.

Under partnership efforts, USA Today would manage the readership program, distribution and recycling efforts, as well as the newspapers’ display fixtures.