Metro newspaper

[Ivor]

On my social travels & when I was working on the railway always picked up a Metro & it seemed to be very popular with commuters but the last couple of weeks on the Sussex West Coastway they are no longer, the metal dispensers are also being removed & the Stagecoach buses also no longer have them.

Not been into London for a few weeks but are they available at London Stations & elsewhere across the country still?

A railway staff member told me they had stopped printing but this isn’t the case as on news apps they show front pages of daily papers including the Metro.

Country is falling apart

 

[hexagon789]

On my social travels & when I was working on the railway always picked up a Metro & it seemed to be very popular with commuters but the last couple of weeks on the Sussex West Coastway they are no longer, the metal dispensers are also being removed & the Stagecoach buses also no longer have them.

Not been into London for a few weeks but are they available at London Stations & elsewhere across the country still?

A railway staff member told me they had stopped printing but this isn’t the case as on news apps they show front pages of daily pages including the Metro.

Country is falling apart

Glasgow Central still had both the racks and the papers yesterday when I passed through.

 

[GW43125]

I still pick them up every morning on the SW metro, so no idea what's going on there.

 

[LCC106]

Still available in London. No rush hour crush or good deed feed today, I think.

 

[Ivor]

Thanks @hexagon789 @GW43125 @LCC106 for the replies I’ll see if things ‘return to normal’ strange that Stagecoach buses without too I’ve been using buses a lot lately & were always available on morning services although most ran out by mid-morning.

The thought of having to stick my hand in my pocket when I fancy a paper is a throwback in life

I look at news on phone apps but being ‘old skool’ I do like a hard copy

 

[Typhoon]

On my social travels & when I was working on the railway always picked up a Metro & it seemed to be very popular with commuters but the last couple of weeks on the Sussex West Coastway they are no longer, the metal dispensers are also being removed & the Stagecoach buses also no longer have them.

Went up to the 'Smoke' today. No Metros on my Stagecoach East Kent bus (despite it being 07:30 - can't have all been taken), none at the station, or the station I changed trains at, I looked out at a station where the metal containers are on the platform, they had been removed. Got off at Bromley South , some there (as well as City AM), and on a couple of buses I caught, serving areas closer to the London boundary..

Not good, I need the Sudoku_equivalent to keep my brain active! I'll have to buy some books.

 

[Ivor]

Went up to the 'Smoke' today. No Metros on my Stagecoach East Kent bus (despite it being 07:30 - can't have all been taken), none at the station, or the station I changed trains at, I looked out at a station where the metal containers are on the platform, they had been removed. Got off at Bromley South , some there (as well as City AM), and on a couple of buses I caught, serving areas closer to the London boundary..

Not good, I need the Sudoku_equivalent to keep my brain active! I'll have to buy some books.

Maybe they’re cutting costs although companies that advertise with them won’t be happy with reduced distribution.

I’ve definitely got to get a life if the lack of getting a Metro is bothering me

 

[Shimbleshanks]

They seem to have disappeared from Purley and Caterham stations, haven't seen one for weeks or months. The free local paper that we used to get in Tesco has also gone. I wonder, is it some problem with a distributor?

 

[youngiecj]

Still available in Nottingham and Leicester stations, Grantham I think still as well.

 

[ainsworth74]

A railway staff member told me they had stopped printing but this isn’t the case as on news apps they show front pages of daily papers including the Metro.

The Independent still produce a front page which appears on various apps and paper review shows despite not being published in print since 2016!

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

There were definitely still some on the West Midlands Metro this morning.

 

[J-2739]

Still available in London. No rush hour crush or good deed feed today, I think.

I think rush-hour crush has returned?

 

[londonbridge]

Just finished my work shift (in London), loads of copies left on my bus home

 

[jon0844]

My friend was made redundant not so long ago and the page count has been way down since even before Covid. Now it's more of a pamphlet than a newspaper.

I expect the stations that still have it will have less copies each day. And as less people get a copy, the less advertisers it will attract.

In the past they printed so many, on a regional basis (divided up around London) you could pay for a double cover in one or all regions. Now I assume there are no such options? Or if there are on the media pack, no company is interested.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

All the blue Metro bins at multiple stations in Glasgow this week were empty and had prominent notices all over them... at least two for every bin - warning that unauthorised newspapers placed in them would be removed and destroyed by staff.

That suggests some kind of falling out between the publisher or distributor and the railway?

 

[JD2168]

Plenty of Metros today at Sheffield Station & on First buses as normal.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Copies still available at Preston (Lancs) earlier today.

 

[Jimini]

They cut the distribution footprint by ~35% a couple of weeks ago. More to follow potentially later in the year as well.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

They cut the distribution footprint by ~35% a couple of weeks ago. More to follow potentially later in the year as well.

Makes sense. The Metro newspaper certainly seems a lot thinner (in page numbers, if not in actual content) than it ever used to be, which is probably a consequence of reduced advertising uptake.

Undoubtedly, further economies will need to be made, such as reducing the daily print run even more, and/or no longer distributing copies from further flung locations.

 

[Ivor]

They cut the distribution footprint by ~35% a couple of weeks ago. More to follow potentially later in the year as well.

I trawled the net to see what was going on & found nothing, thanks for the info @Jimini

 

[westv]

Metro used to be a London only paper.

 

[DelW]

All the blue Metro bins at multiple stations in Glasgow this week were empty and had prominent notices all over them... at least two for every bin - warning that unauthorised newspapers placed in them would be removed and destroyed by staff.

That suggests some kind of falling out between the publisher or distributor and the railway?

There were a couple left behind on the seats of the Subway train that I boarded at Buchanan Street on Tuesday morning, so they were still available somewhere in the area.

 

[jon0844]

Metro used to be a London only paper.

You can see all the regions and other information on its website.

In April 2023, the circulation was 956,317 nationally. (Source: ABC)

 

[westv]

You can see all the regions and other information on its website.

In April 2023, the circulation was 956,317 nationally. (Source: ABC)

I'm talking about when it first started.

 

[Ivor]

You can see all the regions and other information on its website.

In April 2023, the circulation was 956,317 nationally. (Source: ABC)

Been going 24 years & the most-read UK newspaper paper in 2017 according to a National readership survey.

 

[Typhoon]

Makes sense. The Metro newspaper certainly seems a lot thinner (in page numbers, if not in actual content) than it ever used to be, which is probably a consequence of reduced advertising uptake.

Undoubtedly, further economies will need to be made, such as reducing the daily print run even more, and/or no longer distributing copies from further flung locations.

What I have noticed is there are fewer 'all-ads' pages near the back these days, and specialist sections like 'Property' are a lot, lot thinner. As is the actual paper used (I picked up two not so long ago, thinking there was only one).

@Jimini - thanks. The one plus is there won't be people looking through bus windows to see if it has any Metros left, stepping inside to pick them up and getting off, blocking passengers trying to get on.

 

[Ivor]

The one plus is there won't be people looking through bus windows to see if it has any Metros left, stepping inside to pick them up and getting off, blocking passengers trying to get on.

Ha ha….yeah I have noticed more & more of that on my bus routes, they’ll keep doing that for some time to come I bet until ‘the penny drops’

 

[LCC106]

I think rush-hour crush has returned?

Yes, it had returned but wasn’t published on the day in question x

 

[Snow1964]

Plenty at both stations I used this afternoon (Bath Spa and Bradford on Avon)

 

[davews]

There was a big pile of them at Martins Heron this afternoon.