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Can the words “FREE” and “White Paper” live happily together?

By Michael Stelzner

While reading the recent edition of print publication B2B (the magazine for marketing strategists), I came across a rather striking advertisement.

Here was the headline:

FREE

[Imagine a screen shot of a “white paper” cover]

White

Paper

Now call me stupid. BUT, when I last checked, ALL white papers were FREE.

Has ANYONE ever paid for a white paper?

To make matters worse, this ad was sponsored by a MAJOR publisher and was targeted to marketing professionals.

What are your thoughts about the marriage of the words “FREE” and “White Paper”? Can they happily co-exist?

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 15th, 2006 at 6:26 pm and is filed under Lead Generation, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

  • Whitney
    There was a time when I would have said that uttering "free white paper" was redundant redundant (repetition intentional).

    Recently, though, I've been running across a few too many vendors who are trying to charge for white papers. OR they make you jump through hoops -- by way of requiring you to fill out LOTS of fields, or even talk to a sales rep -- to get to white papers.

    This fall, the corporation I contract for did pay for a white paper because it purported to deliver information our team was really in need of. Except, what we thought we were buying was a "report". After we forked over the money, what we got was a 12-page white paper. And we didn't get ANY of the information that the ad copy gave the impression the document would deliver. The company that authored the document lost a chance at our business -- a contract that would meant $40K to $50K for them.
  • Mike, I'm not sure since it was given to me by a client for a project I worked on.

    It's difficult for me to verify since I don't pay for, or have access to their site.
  • Hi Jonathan - Is that sample one that was freely provided to readers? I am guessing since it says sponsored by Tivoli, it was free??
  • While Gartner refers to their papers as "Research Notes", IDC is still using the term white paper. Here's an example of a security paper they co-authored with Tivoli that contains the label "white paper".

    http://www.whitepapercompany.com/pdfs/IDCWP.pdf
  • mario vellandi
    If one looks at how prevalent white papers are today, the term "FREE" makes it redundant and TO ME, devalues the image of the publisher. However, there are many users that aren't aware of this and simply respond to FREE, are satisfied, and return for more...perhaps even to buy; which is great.
  • Hey Jonathan;

    Analyst reports these days are not using the label white paper (at least not that I see).

    But you are right, in that context, someone might pay.

    I think the reason people use the word FREE is rather because it draws eyeballs.

    Mike
  • I agree that the use of two terms "free" and "white paper" qualifies as an oxymoron, but I can think of situations where there is a charge for white papers.

    Companies like Gartner Research, Forrester, and IDC charge for their white papers and related research, albeit as part of an annual subscription.

    The fact that some companies are willing to use the terms "free" and "white paper" together in a promotion, speaks to the perceived high value that white papers hold in the business community.
  • Yes Mark -- I was thinking something along those lines. - Mike
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