I agree, but one factor here might be that they are generally really bad - boring, poorly-written local news amid scads of badly-designed adverts. You might easily be able to get somewhat higher numbers by having consistently interesting content.
Maybe the typical free paper is bad, but the best papers, such as the Chicago Reader and the Onion, are free.
If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post, even in Discussion, it goes here.