Metro (Associated Metro Limited)

Metro is the trading name of a freesheet published by Associated Newspapers. The paper launched in London in 1999, is available from Monday to Friday each week from most London Underground stations and some suburban railway routes.

The newspaper can now be found in 12 urban centres. Localised editions are distributed in Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield and, from 2004, Bristol and Bath. (In some areas, the paper operates as a franchise with a local newspaper publisher, rather than as a wholly-owned concern.) It is part of the same media group as the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and Evening Standard.

In its first five years, it rocketed to over 1 million daily readers, making it the UK's 4th largest daily newspaper, despite the fact that readers receive the newspaper for free. Due to its urban and mainly youthful audience, advertising receipts have been very healthy at a time when its older stablemate, the Evening Standard, has 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.

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 . Similarly, Rupert Murdoch is said to have regretted missing opportunity of launching his own London paper.

The newspaper was designed to be read in 20 minutes. One of the major ways in which it is different from the other UK newspapers is that it take a solidly independent line on political reporting. (Other 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 the usual mix of articles on holidays, food, property, commuting, health and so on, as well as extensive entertainment listings. The popular puzzles page contains the cartoon strips Nemi (by Lise Myhre) and This Life (by Brook), astrology readings by David Wells and David J. Bodycombe's Think Tank brainteasers.