It is a basic fact that more and more people are changing from getting their newspaper delivered to their doorstep, to getting their newspaper via the internet. Paper to digital.
In the Netherlands, like most of Northern Europe and Scandinavia, a large percentage of the population traditionally had that newspaper subscription.

So now, faced with the threat of extinction or at least, lower subscription numbers, the newspapers all over the country are aggressively pursuing the person on the street. You'll surely notice the young people all wearing the same jacket, smiling your way at the entrance to the supermarket. They'll engage you in conversation and even when you inform them that you don't speak Dutch or that you're not from around here, they will still try and get you to sign up for a subscription.

They also try the free gift thing. The latest on my block is ice cream! What a delicious attention grabber - the newspaper-jacket guy rings the doorbell and says "I'm from the newspaper and we're just giving anyone free ice cream, what flavor do you like". So of course I'm a blogger so I'm home and I look towards the ice cream man and say two things -- "I don't want the newspaper but I do want the chocolate." -- No problem, the kid informs me, as he runs to the cart to deliver me a chocolate cone. A little small talk as I eat my ice cream, and onward he goes, to get some people to sign up for the newspaper and hand out lots of ice cream. For the kids in the neighborhood, and myself, he was the pied-piper of deliciousness.

Moral of the story: The ice cream man still pushes his cart down the streets of Amsterdam. OR - Don't totally blow off the newspaper guys, they might have something good for you. (?)