Metro is a free daily newspaper in Philadelphia published by TPI Metro, Inc. which began publishing on January 24, 2000. Its main competition is The Philadelphia Daily News. In 2004, Metro surpassed The Daily News in circulation, 143,798 to 141,868, to move into second behind 372,297 for The Philadelphia Inquirer

The Philadelphia Inquirer

The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...

s. It was the first Metro edition published in North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 and the ninth edition since the first in Stockholm in 1995.

Lawyers representing the publishers of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, U.S.A. Today and The New York Times filed an action in Federal Court three days before Metros first publication to block local transit authority SEPTA from giving what they considered to be a competitive advantage to Metro.
SEPTA signed a five-year contract with TPI Metro. Part of the contract allows SEPTA to produce one page in each edition; however, aside from that page SEPTA has no control over any other aspect of the paper. The contract calls for Metro to pay $45,000 a month to SEPTA, which they stopped paying in March, 2003, claiming SEPTA failed to live up to the terms of the contract. Despite lawsuits and counter-suits, in 2004 TPI Metro PA and SEPTA signed a three-year contract which increased payments to $65,000 a month.

The daily is primarily distributed by old-time newspaper hawkers paid to station themselves in areas with high pedestrian traffic, who offer the free paper to anyone who passes by. In addition, Metro can be found in distinctive green boxes on corners and in train and subway stations, echoing the colorful green and orange template used in all editions. Metro is designed using Apple Macintosh computers running QuarkXpress. There are also Metro editions in two other American cities, New York and Boston which are run by the same publishing company, Metro International

Metro International

Metro International is a Swedish 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% since launch of the first newspaper edition in 1995. It is a freesheet, meaning that distribution is...

.

Metro International, based in the Mayfair

Mayfair

Mayfair is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster.-History:Mayfair is named after the annual fortnight-long May Fair that took place on the site that is Shepherd Market today...

 section of London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, is a subsidiary of the Modern Times Group

Modern Times Group

Modern Times Group is a Swedish media company. MTG was formed out of the media holdings of investment company Kinnevik, which in 1997 was distributed to the company stockholders. Among the assets were Viasat and Metro International...

 and the world's leading publisher of free dailies, with 69 editions in 18 countries and 17 languages, including the largest-circulation papers in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 and Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

.

External links

• Metro.lu, Metro International
• Metropoint.com, Read today's Metro
• ¨Philadelphia.about.com, "Metro Launch Causes Media Frenzy"
• BLE.org, "SEPTA Wants Metro To Pay Up"