As someone who works at a newspaper, I can safely say that between 10-20 percent of newspaper circulation are "freebies," such as issues donated to schools, hospitals, hotels, and other public venues.
Likewise, whenever a newspaper manager sees circulation falling, he or she often launches into promotional mode in which he gives away thousands of additional newspapers just so he can claim the numbers are going up.
How many times have you stayed in a hotel only to find a free USA Today or NY Times at your doorstep in the morning.
One paper I worked at GAVE every school in its territory a stack of about 100 newspapers each and every morning, for the students AND for the faculty. These were included in the daily circulation numbers even though the paper did not get one red cent.
It was their little scam to try and hook the kiddies into reading their paper every day.
We have to get on the road early to get to work on time, and by the time we get home in the afternoon, the news is stale. There's no elbow room on the metro during morning rush hour to do a quick read, either.
Anything we would need the weekday edition for, like sports scores or headlines, we can get online or from Channel 4 news (which runs from 5 AM to 7 AM). The news is fresher from those sources, too. News moves fast around here.