''Metro'' was a

free daily newspaper Free newspapers are distributed free of charge, often in central places in cities and towns, on public transport, with other newspapers, or separately door-to-door. The revenues of such newspapers are based on advertising. They are published at ...

in Sweden. It was printed in four editions: Stockholm, Gothenburg,

Skåne Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous with Skåne ...

and National, which were distributed in 67 towns and cities throughout the country. The paper was the first European free paper. On 8 August 2019, its cancellation was announced.

History and profile

''Metro Stockholm'' was the first version. The paper was launched on 13 February 1995 and distributed in the

Stockholm Metro The Stockholm metro ( sv, Stockholms tunnelbana) is a rapid transit system in Stockholm, Sweden. The first line opened in 1950, and today the system has 100 stations in use, of which 47 are underground and 53 above ground. There are three colo ...

. Its owner and founding company is

Modern Times Group Modern may refer to: History * Modern history ** Early Modern period ** Late Modern period *** 18th century *** 19th century *** 20th century ** Contemporary history * Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century Phil ...

(MTG), a subsidiary of the Swedish conglomerate Kinnevik. The paper is published in

tabloid format A tabloid is a newspaper with a compact page size smaller than broadsheet. There is no standard size for this newspaper format. Etymology The word ''tabloid'' comes from the name given by the London-based pharmaceutical company Burroughs W ...

Metro International Metro International is a Swedish global media company based in Luxembourg that publishes the ''Metro'' newspapers. Metro International's advertising sales have grown at a compound annual growth rate of 41 percent since launch of the first news ...

. For a long time, ''Metro'' was the sole free newspaper available in the different metropolitan areas. In 2002, the Bonnier group launched ''

Stockholm City Stockholm () is the capital and most populous city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately 1 million people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million i ...

'' in the Stockholm region. ''City'' expanded into Gothenburg and Malmö in September 2006 and was followed a few weeks later by the

Schibsted Schibsted Media Group is an international media group. The company has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway, and is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The CEO is Kristin Skogen Lund. In 2019, Schibsted spun off the majority of their online market ...

-backed ''

Punkt SE ''Punkt'' is a studio album by Canadian Québécois Pierre Lapointe, released by Audiogram on 26 February 2013. The album was long listed for the 2013 Polaris Music Prize The 2013 edition of the Canadian Polaris Music Prize was presented on Septem ...

'' in all three cities. ''

City Göteborg A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be de ...

'' was closed down in late 2007. In May 2008 ''Metro had'' reached an agreement with Schibsted that meant that ''Punkt SE'' would be closed down and Schibsted would buy a 35 percent share of ''Metro Sweden''. In the period of 2001-2002 ''Metro'' sold 384,000 copies. Hard hit by the introduction of smart phones, which led morning commuters and other key groups of readers to follow news on cell phones instead of picking up free newspapers, the paper's finances grew increasingly strained in the 2000s. Unable to pay its bills, the newspaper ceased publication in 2019 after briefly attempting to survive as an online-only publication.

Comics

Both the long-featured comic strip ''

Elvis Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the " King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. His ener ...

'', by

Tony Cronstam Tony Cronstam (born 6 August 1969, Växjö) is a Swedish cartoonist. An illustrator of role-playing games for Target Games during the 1980s, he made his debut as a cartoonist with the future-based strip ''Provet'' (''The Test'') in '' Svenska Se ...

,Metro - Serier
and the earlier

Rocky ''Rocky'' is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise and stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burge ...

, by

Martin Kellerman Martin Kellerman (born 1973 in Växjö) is a Swedish cartoonist, known for the comic strip ''Rocky''. He was influenced by American and Swedish underground cartoonists such as Peter Bagge, Max Andersson, Robert Crumb, Harvey Pekar, Joe Matt an ...

, were first published in ''Metro Stockholm''.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Metro 1995 establishments in Sweden 2019 disestablishments in Sweden Free daily newspapers Daily newspapers published in Sweden Defunct newspapers published in Sweden Newspapers published in Stockholm Publications established in 1995 Publications disestablished in 2019 Swedish-language newspapers