Messenger Post Media's eight suburban weeklies switched to free subscriptions this week, though they still appear to carry a 50-cent newsstand price.

This is MPM's second shot at a free circulation model, though last time the subscriptions cost money and newsstand copies were free. The last time around, the papers were owned by the Ewing family, this time it's GateHouse Media.

The idea is to get the papers to reach more homes, Publisher Jim O'Rourke wrote in a front-page article in today's papers.

O'Rourke also wrote that "more than 120,000" of the eight Post papers, each with expanded content, would be distributed each week, and would replace the Community Shopping Guide. That's quite a change from the 21,052 circulation figure reported last fall in filings with the U.S. Postal Service. And that figure was a drastic drop from the 49,968 figure reported in 2002.

O'Rourke did not say how many copies will be mailed to subscribers and how many are destined for newsstands. He could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.