This used to be very common in Italy, particularly near community centres, libraries, and political-party locations (in the latter case, of course, it was restricted to specific newspapers). It took a lot of maintenance (vandalism, weather, etc) and slowly disappeared with the multiplication of media channels. Still, it was a very low-tech/high-democracy way to disseminate information. You can still read newspapers for free in libraries and cafes, but obviously it’s not the same (you cannot discuss with others at a library, and cafes will typically stick to sports and local news to avoid alienating anyone).