Metro is a free newspaper distributed on public transportation across the UK that was founded in 1999. It achieved a readership of over 1 million within five years, making it the fourth largest weekday newspaper in the UK. By 2010, Metro was printing approximately 1.3 million copies daily and had over 3.5 million readers. In recent years its circulation has continued to increase, surpassing The Sun as the largest weekday newspaper in the UK in 2017 with a circulation of nearly 1.5 million copies. As a free newspaper distributed on public transportation, Metro does not target a specific audience.

1. Metro is a free newspaper in the UK and is published in tabloid format by DMG Media (part
of Daily Mail and General Trust), the owners of the newspaper. The paper was founded on
the 16th
March 1999 in London and is distributed from Monday to Friday every week on most
public transport services and stations across the UK. It is part of the same media group as
the Daily Mail and The Sun.
In its first five years of being published, it achieved a readership of over 1 million readers,
making it the UK’s fourth largest weekday newspaper, after The Sun, the Daily Mail, and the
Daily Mirror. In October 2008, its total certified distribution for that month was 1,361,306. It
now prints approximately 1.3m copies daily, and officially has some 3.5m readers, as of
March 2010. The WAN-IFRA reported its 2009 circulation as 1,335,000. In October 2016
circulation was increased to nearly 1.5 million and in June 2017 it became the biggest
weekday newspaper by daily circulation, overtaking The Sun for the first time with a
circulation of 1,479,775. This year Metro became the most read newspaper in the UK
according to monthly National Readership Survey figures.
There isn’t really a target audience for the Metro as they are free and on public transport
where anyone going to work, school, university, interviews, anyone going anywhere.