Metro (magazine)

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Metro is a glossy monthly lifestyle magazine published in New Zealand by ACP Media. It has a strong focus on the city of Auckland. The magazine was first published independently by Warwick Roger and Bruce Palmer. It captured the essence of Auckland city with in depth reportage of issues and society.

The timing of Metro's launch coincided with the rapid expansion of the New Zealand economy that occurred from 1984, following the election of a Labour Party led government - who were forced to implement widespread deregulation and economic reform. The increased access to imported luxury goods made Metro magazine an attractive media environment for advertisers.

Metro magazine's success led to the launch of a sister title North & South, edited by Robin Langwell. This publication took a wider look at New Zealand regional stories. Langwell continues to be editor of North & South.

Both Metro and North & South have won many awards for publishing and journalism.

A third title, women's interest magazine More, was launched before the stable was bought by ACP Media, an Australian publishing consortium.

Metro's fortunes have varied since Warwick Roger gave up the editor's chair. The appointment of Bill Ralston saw dramatic shifts in the magazine's editorial focus away from the rigor of Roger's style to a more flamboyant, celebrity style format. Sales were disappointing and period decline followed.

The magazine was relaunched as a large format glossy title while led Nicola Legat, a long-time contributing journalist. The changes were intended to reverse the decline of sales and readership. At its peak Metro sold 40,000 copies but this had fallen to less than 20,000. During this period the society scandal column The Ferret was dropped from Metro's pages.

In 2005 Legat left the magazine to join publishing company Random House. She was replaced by Lauren Quaintance.