midday METRO

Wednesday, December 6, 2006

Metro International


Metro International is a Swedish media company.

Metro is the largest and fastest growing international newspaper in the world. 70 daily Metro editions are published in over 100 major cities in 21 countries in 19 languages across Europe, North & South America and Asia. Metro has a unique global reach - attracting a young, active, well-educated audience of more than 18.5m daily readers and over 37.5 million weekly readers. Metro has an equal number of male and female readers and 70% are under the age of 45. Metro's advertising sales have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 44% since launch of the first edition in 1995. The company was started as a subsidiary of the Modern Times Group along with Viasat Broadcasting, and the first edition was published and distributed for the Metro Stockholm in the Stockholm Metro. It is now controlled through investment company Kinnevik. Metro was founded by Pelle Andersson.

The 70 Metro free newspaper editions are distributed in high-traffic commuter zones or in public transport networks from a combination of self-service racks and by hand distributors on weekdays. Weekend editions are also published in Stockholm, Holland and Santiago on Saturdays. The distribution points are located either in, or around, public transport networks (subways, trains, buses, trams), office buildings, retail outlets, at key distribution points on busy streets, or in other high-density population areas such as college campuses. The newspaper is primarily distributed in metro systems, and locally the name may vary due to trademark issues. Chilean and Mexican editions are called Publimetro, the Spanish one is named Metro Directo.

Metro was first launched in Stockholm on 13 February 1995. Under the name Metropol, a German language edition was published in Switzerland by "Metro Publication (Schweiz) AG". It was started on 31 January 2000 as a direct competitor to 20 Minuten. The newspaper ceased publication without announcement on 13 February 2002. A weekly magazine named Metropop started to be published on April 27, 2006, on every Thursday in Hong Kong.