Metro (British newspaper)

Metro is a free daily newspaper in the United Kingdom published by Associated Newspapers Ltd (part of Daily Mail and General Trust). It is available from Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays) each week on many public transport services across the United Kingdom.

History

The paper was launched in London in 1999, and can now be found in 14 UK urban centres. Localised editions are produced for Bath, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Derby, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Nottingham, Newcastle and Sheffield.^[1] 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.

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.^[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. This was closed on 18 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 puzzles page contains the cartoon strip Nemi (by Lise Myhre), 118 118 (by Clive Collins) (advertisement 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. Since November 2011, it has featured the cartoon strip Buckles (by David Gilbert).

On 8 July 2009, the online version of Metro was merged with London Lite.^[3] This may have broken the site, or it may even have been hacked, as clicking on the T&C link leads only to a short page of yell.com links. Clicking on the Contact link leads to the same page, which means that this issue cannot be reported to Metro's admin.

In 2005, Metro launched a science page called MetroCosm. This is written, illustrated and edited by Stefan Bayley^[4] and has received acclaim from scientists and the public alike for its accessibility, accuracy and its fearless approach to complex subjects. In 2010, Stefan Bayley was nominated for the Arthur C Clarke award for Best Space Reporting and again in 2011 for the Arthur Clarke award for Achievement in Space Media. There is an online version (run by Stefan Bayley) called CosmOnline.^[5]

With the announcement of the UK General Election, Metro's ownership by Daily Mail and General Trust has seen it following the lead given by the paid-for Daily Mail in taking an openly pro-conservative line. This has seen it publishing a series of front page articles and headlines supportive of the Conservative Party and critical of both the previous Labour Government and the Liberal Democrats.

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. In October 2008, its total certified distribution for that month was 1,361,306. It now prints approximately 1.3m copies daily, and officially has some 3.5m readers, as of March 2010.^[6]

Metro Herald (Ireland)

The Dublin freesheet Metro Herald is similar in layout and content to its British counterpart, as Associated Metro provides much of the content.^[7] It merged with it's main competitor Herald AM (published by Independent News and Media's Evening Herald) to form the Metro Herald.

Metro Ireland was launched on 10 October 2005, as was Herald AM. Both titles were loss making, despite a circulation of 145,000 between them in the greater Dublin area. The merger of the two titles faced scrutiny by the Competition Authority as the resulting match up drew together IN&M (publishers of the Irish Independent) and The Irish Times (the two Dublin-based broadsheets).^[8] On Thursday 2 July 2009, it was announced that the two freesheets were to merge,^[9] and by 2010 this merger was complete.^[10]

See also

• GameCentral

References

External links

• Metro News Online version of Associated Newspapers' Metro newspaper
• Metro.mobi Mobile version of Associated Newspapers' Metro newspaper
• Hot off the Press, Steve Auckland, Metro MD discusses setting up the newspaper
• e-Metro Digital version of Associated Newspapers' Metro newspaper
• Metro Ireland
• e-Metro Ireland Digital version of Metro Ireland
• CosmOnline Online version of Metro's popular science column by Ben Gilliland (not owned by Metro)