Metro (Netherlands)
Metro is a Dutch daily newspaper . It is a free newspaper that can be found in train stations of the Nederlandse Spoorwegen , Rotterdam subway stations, buses and trams, McDonald’s branches, branches of the Super de Boer supermarket chain , 160 large post offices (including all in Amsterdam and Rotterdam) Flights from Martinair , trips from Stena Line and distributed in some universities, schools and hospitals.
The newspaper appears Monday through Friday in tabloid format . The editorial office is in Amsterdam . The newspaper is published by Metro International , a Luxembourg- based company that publishes free newspapers worldwide and is controlled by the investment company Kinnevik of the Swedish Stenbeck family. The circulation in the first quarter of 2008 was 553,021 (print) and 106,719 (e-newspaper) copies. The editor-in-chief is Rutger Huizenga.
history
The German journalist Falk Madeja, who lives in the Netherlands, became acquainted with the original Swedish edition during a stay in Stockholm and then wanted such a newspaper for the Netherlands. Madeja met the entrepreneur Bart Lubbers, the son of the former Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers , who in turn brought in the entrepreneur Tiago Jurgens. Together the three made a business plan. The Swedish Metro already had plans to expand abroad and brought Madeja, Lubbers and Jurgens on board, who got 50% in the new newspaper, which was now the Dutch edition of the Swedish parent edition. In contrast to the mother edition, the Dutch version was not to be distributed in underground stations, but in train stations of the Nederlandse Spoorwegen . For this purpose, an exclusive contract was concluded, which lasted until 2007, when the new competitor De Pers also received rights for distribution in the train stations. Until 2004 metro was only distributed in the stations.
On June 21, 1999, the first issue appeared at the same time as the competitor Sp! Ts , a similar project of the Telegraaf Media Groep . Together with the Internet, the free newspapers fundamentally changed the Dutch press landscape. The circulation of the traditional newspapers has steadily decreased since then, so that the quasi-monopoly at the Dutch national quality newspaper De Persgroep Nederland (then under the name "PCM Uitgevers") finally decided to publish its own free newspaper with the name DAG in early 2007 . The De Persgroep Nederland newspaper de Volkskrant had previously published a free weekly newspaper with a focus on work and career. A Saturday edition has been published since September 2003, but this was officially discontinued in August 2005 after the last edition had appeared in the previous month. A separate Rotterdam edition has been published since October 2004, which was soon followed by an Amsterdam edition.
At least in terms of its importance in terms of press history and the number of copies, the success of the Dutch edition has so far been unprecedented. However, it took until 2006 for Metro International to post its first annual profit. Madeja, Lubbers and Jurgens are no longer involved in the newspaper.
Known editors and employees who shape the newspaper
Until his murder in November 2004, the director Theo van Gogh had a weekly column in the newspaper in which he sharply attacked Islam . Not only Van Gogh himself, but also the editorial team received death threats as a result. The then editor-in-chief Dijkgraaf described political justifications that investigations into the safety of van Gogh and the newspapers had been carried out as "chatter".
Out of respect for van Gogh, the space of van Gogh's column was continued as an empty space for a year after his murder, until Ebru Umar , a friend of van Gogh and also a critic of Islam, continued the column.
Previous editors-in-chief
| Jelle Leenes | 1999-2001 |
| Jan Dijkgraaf | 2002-2006 |
| Rutger Huizenga | 2006-2008 |
| Robert van Brandwijk | 2008– |
Edition development
| Widespread circulation since the investigation by the "Oplage Instituut" | |||||
| year | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
| 296,774 | 339.931 | 414.721 | 465.224 | 516,488 | |
| E-newspaper | - | - | - | 28,645 | 84,225 |
Metro today
About 30 editors currently work at Metro . The Internet edition includes a RSS - web feed . The print edition can be downloaded in the original layout as a PDF , the last 10 editions are available in this way in all editions.
Additional information
See also
- The list of Dutch newspapers shows metro's position compared to the other newspapers in the country
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Het Oplage Instituut
- ↑ volkskrant.nl: 'Metro' reads out alleenrecht op stations , January 16, 2007 (Dutch, last accessed July 30, 2008)