Metro is being "refreshed". From Monday the daily freesheet will look a little different, with smaller headlines, extra pages of celebrity news and fewer pages devoted to listings. "Call it a little makeover," said a spokesman for the publishers, Associated Newspapers' .
I am assured that pagination will not be reduced and the editorial/advertising ratio will remain the same as it is now. Most readers are unlikely to notice the changes, said the spokesman, though many may realise they are getting four pages of the "Guilty Pleasures" celebrity coverage rather than the current two.
He also said that, despite the recession that has decimated newspaper advertising on regional and national titles, Metro remains profitable "for the time being, anyway." Listings are evidently to move online to the paper's website, Metro.co.uk.
Metro UK's distribution figures remain high. They are broken down into 10 distinct regions within Britain, plus one in Ireland. Added together, the total number of Metros given away in October, as audited by ABC, was 1,361,306.
It means that Metro, already the fourth most popular national daily paper, after The Sun, Daily Mail and Daily Mirror, is now close to becoming the third because the Mirror is only 58,000 copies ahead (and falling).
"One thing we are doing," joked Metro's managing director, Steve Auckland, "is slashing the cover price by half."
