Metro, a leading UK urban media brand, launched its daily newspaper on the iPad, enhancing its mobile presence by offering engaging content to on-the-go commuters. Partnering with App Studio allowed Metro to streamline its publishing process from PDF to a more interactive format, resulting in nearly 500,000 downloads and 200,000 active subscribers in just over six months. The new app, celebrated for its user-friendly interface and high advertising click-through rates, significantly increased revenue and has been recognized with a 2012 newspaper award for best app.

1. Read All About It!
Metro, UK’s leading urban media brand,
launches on the iPad in Newsstand
Metro extends its success with more Metro Publishing daily to the iPad
— more often — across more platforms! With incredibly tight deadlines, newspapers work around the clock to
deliver news as it happens. Their tablet content must be engaging, easy
T
he successful Metro newspaper, a mobile commuter product
offering bite-sized news and a stimulating pick-me-up to daily to navigate and deliver impactful images. Readers expect current news
commuters, has extended its winning formula onto mobile and and there is no room for error.
iPad® through its mobile vision. Metro’s audience can now engage with So, when Metro needed a system that allowed them to publish the
the brand throughout the day via different mediums. Metro offers busy, newspaper five days a week on the iPad, they turned to App Studio.
on-the-move urbanites more news, sports, fashion, celebrity gossip and Jamie Walters, Executive Director Digital at Metro explains, “We have
entertainment, more often and across more platforms. always used InDesign to produce our news, and we wanted a tablet
METRO NEWSPAPER
CASE STUDY

2. METRO NEWSPAPER
CASE STUDY
publishing partner who could fit in with our cur-
rent process and workflow. App Studio’s plug-
in-based solution allowed us to expand our
publishing cycle for the tablet, rather than hav-
ing to reinvent the wheel.”
Previously Metro had produced a PDF solution,
which was limited in functionality and features.
When deciding to relaunch on the iPad, Metro
was chosen as an Apple Newsstand launch
partner therefore the product had to look and
feel superior to anything else. It also had to
deliver great functionality on time, every day. allows us to customize a bespoke product. Metro is always looking to
innovate in the mobile arena and provide tech-savvy urbanites with rel-
Walters says, “On a daily basis the efficiency of the production is criti- evant and engaging digital products for their busy lives.”
cal. The app is produced alongside the print version, but the content is
not automatically taken from the newspaper layouts. We have invested
in putting a team in place to deliver this on a daily basis, as you just do
The results speak for themselves
not get the same quality with an automated process. In such a compet- The tablet app has enjoyed huge success since its launch receiving
itive marketplace, quality is key and we have sourced a solution that nearly 500,000 downloads in little over six months. It also recently won
the 2012 Newspaper Awards, Best Newspaper App.
With almost 200,000 active subscribers, the app has
gone from strength to strength in attracting readers
on the move.
“We are thrilled with the results so far,” says Walters.
“Usage levels are fantastic and it has exceeded our
expectations. We had high hopes for this and have
realized how well Newsstand works for us. Initially we
did not think Newsstand was going to have free
products, but then they approached us about being a
launch partner and we leapt at the opportunity.”
Ready for its urbanite audience
of morning commuters
Because Metro is a daily newspaper, Newsstand is a
great fit. One of the issues for Metro is when to down-
load it. The best time to do this is obviously overnight.
With the Newsstand feature, Metro’s new editions
are beamed to the app between three and five in
the morning, ready for the morning commute.
2 ©2012 Quark Software Inc. All rights reserved

3. METRO NEWSPAPER
CASE STUDY
As the app delivers current daily news, it has to be very user friendly.
Users can scroll the news items quickly in an order that is easy to navi- We have always used InDesign
gate, and the interactivity includes news videos, film trailers, and music
clips as added extras. There is also an iPad exclusive ‘Window on the
World’ photo gallery for users to enjoy.
to produce our news, and we
The easy-to-use format consists of color-coded content that is quickly
searchable. Specific items can be selected chronologically or by skim-
wanted a tablet publishing
ming headlines and images, making the whole experience a very visual
one. This simplicity works for Metro. partner who could fit in with
It pays to advertise our current process and
Not only has Metro seen such great success as shown through its
exploding download figures, but they have also seen a huge increase
in revenue from advertising. Click-through rates from full page adverts
workflow. App Studio’s plug-
are at 15-20% which is an exceptionally high response rate.
These adverts are created in InDesign and HTML5, which are supported
in-based solution allowed us
by App Studio, making it easier for advertisers to produce the stimulating
and relevant brand messages in which consumers are interested. This rev- to expand our publishing cycle
enue is crucial to the ongoing success of Metro, and by using App Studio
it is easier to port the news content and advertising onto other tablet
devices over time.
for the tablet, rather than
If you would like to learn more about a certain success story or about how
your company can profit from Quark products and solutions, visit
having to reinvent the wheel.
www.quark.com or contact us. If you are interested in having Quark publish
your success story, please contact the Quark PR team at pr@quark.com. — Jamie Walters, Executive Director Digital at Metro
About
App Studio is the next generation digital publishing solution create branded content apps using QuarkXPress, InDesign,
that uses HTML5 to push the bounds of user experience HTML5, and XML. Through a managed cloud environment,
without the high cost and effort associated with custom app designers, authors, and extended teams are able to
development. By combining the market-leading HTML5 collaborate to create rich, interactive content that can be
technology from the recent acquisition of PressRun with delivered across multiple platforms and devices.
Quark’s existing digital publishing technology, App Studio
is the only digital publishing solution that allows users to Get started for free at www.AppStudio.net
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