From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Metro is the trading name of a free
daily newspaper, published by Associated Newspapers Ltd (part of Daily Mail and General
Trust) in the United Kingdom. It is available from
Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays) each week on many public
transport services across the United Kingdom.
Background
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, Tyne and Wear, Sussex, Sheffield, Nottingham, Bristol and Bath. It is part of the same media group
as the Daily
Mail and The Mail on Sunday, although in
some areas, the paper operates as a franchise with a local newspaper publisher,
rather than as a wholly owned concern.
Evolution
The Metro concept comes from Sweden. Metro
International, a different company, launched in the UK in 1999
and in Newcastle upon Tyne was distributed side by side with the
Associated Newspapers' version on the Tyne and
Wear Metro system. After battling alongside the Associated
Newspapers' version with the same name, it changed its name to
Morning News. It was short-lived, however, and Morning
News was discontinued shortly afterwards (see Metro
International). They have had plans to launch a rivalling free
evening newspaper in London.[1] .
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. This was closed on 18th
September 2009.
Content
The newspaper was designed to be read in 20 minutes. 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 strip Nemi (by Lise Myhre), 118 118 (by Clive Collins)
(informative comic strip) and This Life (by Rick Brookes), astrology readings by Nikki Harper, 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.
Despite the removal of the crossword, there is still a crossword compiled which is
only available on the Metro website. The removal of the paper crossword caused some
irritation to a lot of readers.
On 8 July 2009, the online version of Metro
was merged with London Lite .
Distribution
In its first five years, it achieved a readership of over 1
million daily readers, making it the UK's fourth largest daily
newspaper, after The Sun, the Daily Mail and
the Daily
Mirror, although it is closing in on the Daily
Mirror in terms of distribution. 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, train or the Underground systems in
Glasgow, Tyne and Wear, and London, and then being picked up by the
next person to use that seat. In October 2008, its total certified
distribution for that month was 1,361,306. 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% of readers are
ABC1
(upper/middle class social grade), 78% are aged 15–44 and 64%
are in work(http://www.associatednewspapers.com/metro.html).
Metro
Ireland
The Dublin freesheet Metro Ireland is similar
in layout and content to its British counterpart, as Associated
Metro provides content, and the Dublin Metro uses the Associated
Metro logo, not the Metro International graphics.[2] Metro
Ireland's ownership (i.e. Fortunegreen Ltd) is broken down as
follows: 45% Associated Newspapers (publishers
of the Irish
Daily Mail), 45% The Irish Times and 10% Metro
International (owners of the rights to the Metro brand in
Ireland). It has one competitor Herald AM published by Independent
News and Media's Evening Herald. Metro Ireland was
launched on 10 October 2005, as was Herald AM. Both titles have
since made losses, despite a circulation of 145,000 between them in
the greater Dublin area. The two titles are
likely to merge, a deal certain to face scrutiny by the Competition Authority
as the resulting match up would draw together IN&M
(publishers of the Irish Independent) and The Irish Times
(the two Dublin-based broadsheets). [3] On
Thursday 2 July 2009 it was announced the two freesheets were to
merge.[4]
References
External
links
| Media in Dublin (Italics indicates soon to be
defunct, bold indicates soon to be created.) |
|
| Local Radio |
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| Local Print |
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| Local Television |
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