I believe they were free, or maybe the box...thing was just broken. I remember being amazed seeing The Onion in a printed version when I was in Philadelphia for a bit (I live in Belgium), always just assumed it was but a site. Saw them outside the Superfresh on South and 10th, I believe.
Ah. Well there goes the idea I had in which they charged for it everywhere except DC (which would have been hilarious).