Trinity Mirror hand back four Metro franchises to DMGT

Trinity Mirror is to hand back four of their eight current regional franchises for The Metro free newspaper to DMGT in January 2018. It is reported the titles in Bristol, Cardiff, East Midlands and Scotland are either unprofitable or in danger of falling into the red.

The Metro is published in London by DMGT with regional titles operated via franchise agreements with publishers including Trinity Mirror and Johnston Press. DMGT provide the bulk of editorial content while franchise partners manage print, distribution and some advertising sales.

The move by Trinity Mirror follows a dramatic decline in print advertising sales. Earlier this year the publisher reported a 19% decline in print adverting revenues.

The titles being relinquished by Trinity Mirror have a relatively small (compared with other titles in the group) distribution figures or incredibly large distribution areas (in the case of the Scottish edition) which may reflect in the commercial difficulties in their operation.

Despite this, DMGT remain upbeat about the prospects of The Metro and have announced that they will be increasing national print distribution across the 14 regional titles under the brand by 10 per cent meaning nearly 1.5 million copies will be printed every day. Much of this increase will be seen in London where distribution will increase by 150,000 copies to 900,000 thanks largely to improved distribution on the city’s bus network.

Metro’s editor Ted Young told journalists: “Our loyal readers are actively picking Metro up every weekday morning and this is clearly demonstrated by the extremely low return rate we see on our London edition at only 1.25 per cent. We know the appetite is definitely there for these extra copies.”

Trinity Mirror will continue to publish The Metro in Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle.