:''For other newspapers with the same name, see
Metro (newspaper).''
'''Metro''' is the trading name of a
free daily newspaper, published by
Associated Newspapers (part of
Daily Mail and General Trust) in the
United Kingdom and
Republic of Ireland. It is available from Monday to Friday each week on many public transport services across the
United Kingdom and
Ireland.
The paper was launched in
London in
1999, and can now be found in 14 UK urban centres. Localised editions are distributed in
Birmingham,
Brighton,
Cardiff,
Edinburgh,
Glasgow,
Leeds,
Manchester,
Liverpool,
Newcastle,
Sussex,
Sheffield,
The East Midlands,
Bristol and
Bath. A
Dublin version, launched in conjunction with ''
Metro International'' and ''
The Irish Times'', began publications on
10 October,
2005. It is part of the same media group as the ''
Daily Mail'', ''
The Mail on Sunday'' and the ''
Evening Standard'', although in some areas, the paper operates as a
franchise with a local newspaper publisher, rather than as a wholly owned concern.
In its first five years, it rocketed to over 1 million daily readers, making it the UK's fourth largest daily newspaper. It now prints approximately 1m copies daily, and officially has some 1.7m readers, as of
September 2005. This high readership is due in part to the papers being left on seats on buses or
London Underground trains, and then being picked up by the next person to use that seat. Due to its urban and mainly youthful audience, advertising receipts have been very healthy at a time when its older stablemate, the ''Evening Standard'', had not been performing so well. 62 per cent of readers are
ABC1 (upper/middle class
social grade), 78 per cent are aged 15–44 and 64 per cent are in work.
The Metro concept comes from Sweden.
Metro International, a different company, originally planned to launch in the UK but Associated Newspapers effectively beat them to it. Nevertheless, they have had plans to launch a rivalling free evening newspaper in
London.
[1]. As noted above, Metro International does co-operate with Associated Metro on the Dublin version of the newspaper, although it is Associated Metro which provides the content, and the Dublin Metro uses the Associated Metro logo, not the Metro International one.
[2]. Similarly,
Rupert Murdoch is said to have regretted missing the opportunity of launching his own London paper. However,
News International, a UK subsidiary of Murdoch's
News Corporation, launched a London-based newspaper in 2006 called
thelondonpaper.
The newspaper was designed to be read in 20 minutes. One of the major ways in which it is different from most other UK newspapers is that it claims to take a determinedly independent line on political reporting. (Some commentators, such as
Piers Morgan, have taken the view that traditional newspapers can only be sold on comment, not raw news.)
The features section contains a mix of articles on travel, homes, style, health and so on, as well as extensive arts coverage and entertainment listings. The popular puzzles page contains the
cartoon strips
Nemi (by
Lise Myhre), and This Life (by Rick Brookes),
astrology readings by Wendy Bristow, and
Sudoku. Previously, it featured a
crossword (in place of the sudoku puzzle),
David J. Bodycombe's Think Tank brainteasers and a
Judge Dredd strip.
External links
★
Metro Café, online version of Associated Newspapers' Metro newspaper
★
Hot off the Press, Steve Auckland, Metro MD discusses setting up the newspaper