Audience Feedback

The metro facilitates audience feedback primarly through the platform of comments and opinion of the magazine's online articles. At the bottom of each page is a feedback box with the option of either making a comment and posting it for other members of the public to see or 'liking'/sharing it via other social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter. The comments are posted straight on to the article page with the ability for others to give it a 'thumbs up' or a 'thumbs down' rating. However, the comments are swifly removed if they are in bad taste/involve any profanities and if they are not approved by those who censor the comments or the autheor of the article.

The Metro does not seem to facilitate audience participation other than giving readers an e-mail address to write to if they have any queries/possible stories for the newspaper.

The Metro website says :

"you'll also find lots of Metro competitions with great prizes on offer, the chance to interact with us and much, much more"

This it would seem audience participation is scarce other than the ability to enter competitions and get in touch with those involved in the publication.

Audience

The Metro is wholly aimed at those on their daily commute to work on public transport, aged from 20-50 years of age and those from a working/middle class background with a steady average income (going to work every day). Despite this, it's entertainment-based content may appeal to a younger commuting audience (e.g students on their way to college/university on the bus).

The online presence of the magazine emphasises it's appeal to a younger audience by including special features such as gaming and competitions. In addition to this, it also has gaming and bingo online counterpart features, indicating an attempt to appeal to a seperate audience to those simply on their daily commute to work.

Logistics

The Metro distributes to various urban centres in the UK and a localised version can be found in Bristol as well as other cities including Cardiff and Liverpool. The publication is only available in the UK and Ireland. However, the Irish Metro counterpart is only partially owned by Associated News.

Ownership

The Metro is owned and published by Associated Newspapers Ltd, a large national newspaper publisher in the UK. They are subsidary of The Daily Mail and General Trust, one of the largest media conglomerates in Europe. Associated Newspapers are also publishers of the newspapers The Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and Loot (a relatively unknown  non-mainstream newspaper).

The Metro

The Metro was launched in 1999 as a coloured newspapers on public transport, for those on their daily commute. It began distributing in London, but is now available in over 50 cities across the UK. It is the world's largest free newspaper corporation. It is made to be easily digestible and read fully within 20 minutes. The newspaper only recently went online (2011) and a full 'e-edition' of the paper can be viewed on the internet. The newspaper's content includes international and local news, entertainment listings, weather and television guides. The newspaper avoids politically-based admits it has 'no political axe to grind'. The online edition of the paper has a 24 hour rolling news service.