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By Jon Bernstein, 3 February 1999 17:31

COMMENT This week's news that the UK's two leading tabloid newspapers are about to offer free Internet access came as a shock to some - at face value, it's too big a risk. But it's actually a plan that can't go wrong - even if they both fail to get a single subscriber. Just as electronics retailer Dixons agreed to front Freeserve to get potential PC buyers through its high-street doors, so the Sun and the Mirror will encourage Joe and Jo Public to get wired so they can read RedTop.com in sufficient numbers to have advertisers watering at the mouth. And if the readers don't go there - so be it. Critics say Sun and Mirror readers aren't ready for the Web - only 19 per cent of Sun readers have PCs in their homes, even fewer in the case of the Mirror. But that's precisely why this is such a clever ploy. Firstly, sub-20 per cent of a combined readership of 4 million-plus is no mean figure on its own. Secondly - and more crucially - while PCs remain in minority ownership the tabloids need to test the water. They need to know the level of interest. Fronting an Internet service provider service - and, remember, that's all they are doing - is a relatively cheap form of market research. The papers' telecoms partners will foot the bulk of the costs (and reap the benefits of increased traffic). All the Sun and the Mirror need to do is market the service - an undoubted area of expertise. If at the end of this experiment, readers simply do not want to get connected, nobody at News International or the Mirror Group is going to shed too many tears.