Metro New York

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 3:13pm on Monday, May 11th, 2009

Metro International is selling its Metro newspapers in the USA, although they will continue to use the Metro brand name, the company announced on May 11, 2009.

Metro International, the international newspaper group, and Seabay Media Holdings LLC ("Seabay Media"), a company formed and controlled by Pelle Törnberg, the former CEO of Metro International, today announced that they have signed an agreement whereby Seabay Media will acquire Metro International's operations in the United States. The transaction is expected to be completed by June 1st 2009.

Metro USA publishes the free daily newspaper Metro in New York and Philadelphia. Metro is also published in Boston through a partnership with the Boston Globe. The three newspapers have a combined circulation of 590,000 daily copies in the US.

Seabay Media will continue to publish Metro in all three markets under a service and license agreement with Metro International. The newspapers will also remain in Metro International's global advertising packages.

Pelle Törnberg, founder and CEO of Seabay Media commented: "We are excited and look forward to continuing the business after completion and to further develop Metro in the United States."

Metro will will record a $2m (£1.3m) loss from the sale.

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 11:34am on Friday, April 3rd, 2009

The Metro newspapers in the USA are dropping Associated Press news, the company reported on March 30, 2009:

"Metro USA, which publishes daily titles in New York, Boston and Philadelphia, has terminated its contract with the Associated Press effective April 1, 2009.

"We believe that the future of our titles lies in producing as much of our own material as possible. Encouraging existing staff to write more and employing new writers gives us a higher degree of flexibility and results in a product which is more relevant to the young, professional audience we, and our advertisers, seek," says Tony Metcalf, Editor in Chief of Metro USA. "Another factor in our decision was cost, something that cannot be ignored in these difficult economic times. By relying more on our own reporting staff, we make a substantial saving while protecting the newspapers' quality and improving relevance to our local markets."

The newspapers will be using other sources of content for its local and national news. As an international newspaper and one of the world's largest news organizations with more than 600 journalists on staff, Metro benefits from use of its 84 daily editions worldwide to provide up-to-minute global news coverage."