What is the metro

The metro is a national newspaper which also publishes different variants of the newspaper with different stories, the different variants are published in different major cities within the UK. The metro newspaper is released on a daily basis around the country, a new copy is released and available to the public in the morning. This means that the Metro has different and current stories everyday, meaning it will not get boring for the usual reader and there is always something new to read. The newspaper is free to the public, this is why the adverts are very important for them as that is their main source of income.

The Metro is a tabloid newspaper, this is because it makes it cheaper to print, lowing their costs and increasing their profit and spending power. The newspaper mostly covers soft news, this is because people who read the newspaper usually read it to pass the time, and reading about subjects such as gardening and pop culture can be a lot easier and is good to pass the time. With the newspaper focusing on pop culture, healthcare and other lifestyle topics allows them to involve adverts in the newspaper which relate to the topics, after reading an article about gardening it might also encourage the reader to buy gardening products after reading the article and seeing the adverts relating to the topic.

You can find the newspaper in a newsagent as well as a simple corner store and Salisbury’s. The newspaper is mostly popular on the tube. This is because its used by people to pass the boring time on the tube. It also allows people to see what is going on around the world as well as in the UK while they have some spare time on the tube. It makes it very convenient. I have read the Metro multiple while on the tube. Personally I think its a great newspaper to read on the tube, as it allows the time to pass quite fast. It also distracts you from the horrible noise of the tube. The paper is also good as it is easy to read and the stories are not too long, allowing you to read the newspaper in a short period of time and go through it in the time you spend on the tube. Ultimately I think the Metro is quite good source of information if you are interested in the different lifestyle topics, its not the best paper for hard news such as politics and economical news, but it is a very convenient newspaper so I do enjoy reading it while on the tube.

The Metro is one of the most popular and most read newspapers in the east of England. With a readership of 1895000 the Metro is one of the most successful paper with advertisers lining up to be featured within the newspaper. Only 764108 copies of the Metro are distributed around the east of England yet they reach over 1.5 million people. This is due to the newspaper being reusable on the tube and people picking it up and leaving it behind for others to read. This allows them to get a higher readership, it also allows them to charge more for their advertising due to their high reach. Advertising is the main form of income for the newspaper due to it being free and available to anyone who either uses the tube or walks near or past a newsagent.

People who read the Metro are majority male with 109900 of the reader being male and the rest 796000 being female.The majority of people who read the Metro are middle class with 1058000 of adults being in the ABC1 class and the rest being AB adults. Also with the majority of the readers of the newspaper being between the ages of 18-44(1284000) and the rest being below 18 and above 44. The data also shows us that many of the the audience of the Metro are people are employed in a full time job, showing us that majority of the people reading the newspaper are professionals.

Also the Metro pride themselves in their readers, advertisers are told that the readers of the Metro are quite professional and up to date with the most recent technology, and they are also very social in their internet free time, happy to go to the bar after work and have a couple of drinks. They are also mostly middle class and have professional jobs and want to strive to do more and get to the top of their career and profession. This all shows the advertisers that the audience of the Metro had spending power as they can afford to go get drinks after work every week. The people are involved in their community and embrace their place of living. With the metro calling them urbanites which are people who live within cities and towns.

I wanted to predict the content I would find within the newspaper, it terms of soft news, hard news, celebrity, lifestyle, advertising and sport. I personally predicted that there would be a majority of advertisements and celebrity and lifestyle, this is because its a free newspaper that is used by most to pass the time on the tube and read a couple of eye catching and interesting stories. Also I predicted that there would be a lot of ads because the Metro a free newspaper which forces them to use a lot of advertisements within the newspaper as its the only way that allows them to make profit and gain money throughout the years. To say the least my predictions were pretty accurate yet still off in some aspects.

After looking through the newspaper, looking at every page and putting every article in a tally chart, I found out that around 30 percent of the newspaper is filled with advertisements which was not really a surprise to be as the newspaper is free and due to this they would need to have a lot of advert to gain profit from their newspapers. They also choose specific adverts so they fit in with the theme of the other subjects on the page, for example a page with tech information on it and game information has an ad for technology. The newspaper also had a large amount of sports news, around 20-25 % this was due to the paper being a special Matchzone edition meaning that there is more content about football in this paper rather than in the copies from the different days. There was also a lot of soft news, lifestyle and celebrity news which is put into the paper for the entertainment of the readers, these articles are put within the newspaper to get the readers interested within the newspaper so they keep on reading and so they are able to see more advertisements within the newspaper the more they read and they might find something that they like. There was still quite a bit of hard news which was at the beginning of the newspaper, the hard news is for people who are more into hard news rather than soft news and the other types of news that might not interest them as much.

When analyzing the front page of the paper there were some differences with this edition of metro compare to other editions. This was the Matchzone edition meaning the paper was mostly about football and other sports rather than its conventional content. The mainhead of the newspaper was at the top but on this editions instead of having a blue background the background is a football stadium which goes with the Matchzone theme of the newspaper. There is also a puff at the top of the newspaper, saying “Inside Today” showing the readers that the matchzone is inside the newspaper. The slogan is also placed at the top under the Metro logo “The worlds most popular free newspaper” by deciding to use the word world instead of UK it makes metro seem bigger than it actually is. The name Metro is short for the word metropolitan which which signifies to us that the metro focuses on distribution in metropolitan cities. The conventional use of the blue, white and red logo may signify the patriotism of the newspaper, using the colors of the UK flag.

The headline is placed on the left side of the front page also being the lead story in the newspaper.The headline does not explain much to the audience just the basics of who and what, “BAKER CHIMP TWEET SHAME” under the headline there is a sub head which explains what the headline is about a bit more this time saying ” BBC FIRES STAR OVER ROYAL BABY “JOKE”” this explains the situation to us in somewhat more detail. Also by placing the quotation marks around the word joke the Metro is showing their audience that they do now agree with the joke and don’t see it as a joke. Under the sub head there is the stand first which explains the story in a lot more detail and also tells the reader to go to page 5 to continue reading about the story. There is also a by-line next to stand first which shows the reader the name of the journalist who wrote the article. Having a by-line for a journalist is very important and it shows that they are quite a good journalist and have to experience and respect.

There is also a secondary lead which is about the royal family which also links to the main lead story by both the stories being about the royal family. The secondary lead shows us Prince Harry holding an invicitus games shirt for his baby. There is also a caption there explaining to us the picture explaining to us that this image has something to do with the invictus games. On the right side of the newspaper there is also the Menu which shows us the different stories that are covered within the newspaper as well as the pages that the stories are on. Than there is an advert at the bottom of the page for carphone warehouse which relates to the target audience of the Metro, attracting the tech savvy people.