It was just before Valentine’s Day 2008 when faithful readers of Halifax’s The Daily News learned they were being dumped after 27 years.
In a Feb. 11 news release, owner Transcontinental Media tersely explained the daily had been losing money since being purchased from Canwest in 2002 and was being closed immediately. Then, in what could be perceived as a “let’s still be friends”-type gesture, it announced that The Daily News would be replaced by the free commuter paper Metro.
The announcement led to the customary hand-wringing about the “dumbing down” of newspapers. Pundits fretted that the demise of The Daily News left the independent Chronicle-Herald as the city’s only paid circulation daily, to which Marc-Noel Ouellette, senior vice-president of Transcontinental’s newspaper group, colourfully responded in an interview with the CBC: “There’s media [in Halifax] up to the wazoo, so I don’t think people are not going to be well informed.”
With its short articles, unbiased editorial approach, and a willingness to introduce bold ad formats that has produced everything from cover wraps to green pages, Metro is frequently fingered as one of the culprits in the demise of so-called “quality” journalism.
Bill McDonald, the Toronto-based group publisher of Metro English Canada—which has grown to include six editions across the country (there’s also a French-language edition in Montreal)—is aware of the criticism. But, he says, Metro isn’t meant to be the McNeil/Lehrer News Hour of newspapers; instead, its journalistic model is similar to that of an all-news radio station. “It’s appealing to a demographic and providing content and a forum for our demographic in a way they’re looking for,” he says. “For our audience, our quality is as high as the quality for paid dailies—and in some cases I think it’s higher.”
Brenda Bookbinder, vice-president of Toronto media agency PHD Canada, describes Metro as a “Columbus Egg”—an idea that only seems simple or obvious in hindsight. (The expression stems from a purported story in which Christopher Columbus, responding to criticism that if he hadn’t found the Americas somebody else would have, challenged his critics to make an egg stand upright without any aid. After they all failed, Columbus gently struck the end of the egg on the table, flattening its tip to make the task easier.) “<[I>Metro] was just a really good idea, and good on the people who came up with it,” she says. “Because there were all these bored people spending anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes on the subway and the bus with absolutely nothing to do. Every single day.”
Its free distribution model has helped Metro steer largely clear of the pitfalls plaguing so many paid dailies. While a recent ad spend forecast from ZenithOptimedia predicted yet another gloomy year for newspapers, with advertising revenues expected to decline 3.1% to $2.4 billion, free dailies were identified as the sector’s one bright spot. They continue to “thrive,” noted the Zenith report.
A year after its launch, Metro Halifax
—a three-way partnership between Transcontinental, Sweden’s Metro International S.A. and Torstar—appears to have cemented its place in the Halifax market. “We learn from every launch we do and try to improve on it, and Halifax has been our best launch yet,” says McDonald. “We continue to put a lot of resources towards local reporting, local content, [and have] excellent coverage in local news, entertainment and sports. If you went back into the market and got some honest feedback from those same prognosticators, you’d find that people would speak very differently.”
Kim Kierans, director of the School of Journalism at Halifax’s University of King’s College, says Metro Halifax has been a better-than-expected replacement for The Daily News, although she stops short of likening it to an ideal substitute. “For what it is, it’s done a remarkably good job,” she says, before adding the caveat: “But there’s no way, given its format, it could ever replace The Daily News. They’ve got some very good reporters, and they’re working really hard, but it’s like comparing apples and oranges. If you were to compare Metro newspapers around the world, it’s probably one of the best, but what does that mean relative to paid circulation newspapers?”
But McDonald points to recent numbers from the Newspaper Audience Databank (NADbank), which show a healthy reader appetite for Metro in its newest market. It currently has 43,400 Monday to Friday readers in the Halifax area, and has boosted its circulation from 25,000 at launch to 32,000. It’s a story that has been repeated in every market in which Metro has launched since arriving in Canada in 2000. Its seven editions—Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax—now boast a combined weekday readership of 1.1 million, and a daily pick-up rate that hovers around 97%. According to parent Metro International S.A., Metro’s Canadian readership grew 26% in 2008, trailing only Denmark (91%), Finland (44%) and the Czech Republic (39%).
It’s a number borne out by the most recent NADbank report, which saw all Metro editions with the exception of Metro Ottawa—which saw its readership dip nearly 13%—enjoy an increase in readership. The titles were led by Metro Toronto at 36% and followed by Metro Vancouver with a more sedate 5% increase.
“There’s an almost limitless appetite for Metro,” says McDonald. “The more papers we can get to market, the more they’re accepted by Canadians.”
The publication is now diversifying, introducing mobile platforms for devices like the BlackBerry and iPhone and beefing up its web offering. While the print publication only appears Monday to Friday, content now appears on MetroNews.ca on weekends.
It is also attempting to expand beyond its core downtown urban audience, introducing the product into industrial parks in cities like Halifax, Calgary, Edmonton and Mississauga, Ont. “We’re trying to appeal to an age and psychographic group, although that’s not limited to public transit users,” says McDonald. “It’s a natural distribution evolution of the print product, just like moving into mobile is a natural evolution.”
And while the current economic situation has put expansion plans on the back-burner for now, McDonald says Metro is also keen to move into other Canadian markets. Winnipeg is an “obvious candidate” he said, “but there are two or three others that are good candidates as well.” What’s the timeline for such an expansion? “I just don’t know,” he admits. “We’re going to have to see how the market develops. Like all media companies, we’re being prudent in that area, [but] it’s a matter of when and where, not a matter of if,” says McDonald.
Meanwhile, the publication’s willingness to experiment with ad formats led to it being named “Newspaper of the Year” at the recent Festival of Media Awards in Valencia, Spain. Not surprisingly, such love from the ad community has prompted traditional dailies to play catch up.
The Toronto Star, for example, now routinely runs cover flaps, while even The Globe and Mail has made tentative forays into sectional wraps (although publisher and CEO Phillip Crawley remains adamant advertising will never appear on the front page).
“Why did [publishers] do it?” asks McDonald. “Well, I’m sure the publisher would say they were being innovative, [but] I think they did it because they were forced to because the market has evolved. The line has moved from where it was five years ago, and I think we will continue to look for ways to be innovative, creative and ahead of the curve.”
Under increased pressure from paid dailies and upstart freebies like Sun Media Corp.’s 24 hours, Metro’s leadership position in the “innovation” space is being challenged, and it’s likely the competition will only intensify as the battle for ad dollars heats up. Yet not even Metro parent Metro International S.A. has been immune to the ongoing economic downturn, recently reporting a first quarter loss of 15.3 million Euros—more than double a first quarter loss of 6.4 million Euros in 2008. While McDonald won’t provide specifics, he says first quarter revenues for Metro’s English language group were up “in excess of 10%” on a year-on-year basis, and that it has successfully pushed through rate increases for editions across the country.
“Many media companies have seen declines,” he says. “So I think it’s an incredible message.”
