Print is weird.

For most print mediums, circulation is more important than sales. Because higher circulation generates more Advertising revenue, which is higher than sales.

But they can't give a newspaper/magazine away, because that would bump them to a lower category for which advertisers pay less.

The solution is to sell as cheap as your desired advertising demographic allows, and incurs lots and lots of "loss".

That is why even in the USA (land of the people-will-grab-anything-not-bolted-down) some newspapers still have that coin+trust box for newspapers.