Finally, something for free thats is actually quite good! (metro.co.uk)

Member Name: djwhite1982

Product:	metro.co.uk
Date:	17/08/09 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Its free, and a nice easy read

Disadvantages: Sports sections is a bit poor

The Metro is a free daily paper available at most of the major cities around the UK and can be picked up at numerous locations, usually based around public transport. The paper is available Mon - Fri, excluding all the usual bank holidays.

The Metro is an easy to read newspaper, that is probably most similar to the red top tabloids, however you do not get quite as much gossip, self help columns and celebrity photo's (thankfully), as you would expect in the usual tabloid papers.

The first 15 or so pages of the paper are taken up by the usual current affairs stories that you would expect in any newspaper. The stories tend to be quite brief and are easy to skim over whilst still getting the general facts. So great for a quick read on the train to work but not so getting an in depth understanding of government actions, foreign affairs etc etc.

The sports section at the back I do find a little disappointing. It is usually 6 pages at an absolute maximum and I find the actual descriptions of the sporting events are very brief and skipped over, and there is more focus on matters surrounding the sport rather than the actual sport itself. Additionally if you're hoping for coverage of any sporting events that aren't that popular, or a less well known football team etc etc then you will be disappointed as they probably won't be mentioned. As with a lot of papers they do try and get in a few sports stars to write their own columns, which include cricket from Alistair Cook, and football from Mark Bright. Again this is all fairly light reading but is great for passing the time whilst commuting, and stirring up a few topics of conversation for the pub.

There are a few adverts and classifieds in the paper, which is to be expected from a free paper since they have to generate income somehow. The classifieds are tailored to the area why you pick the paper up and you can stumble across the odd good advert in there. There's a job advert section which are grouped into various categories and poster at certain days of the week so you know when to have a look. Although the jobs tend to be at a fairly low level, there are still a number of options so its definitely worth a look if you are on the hunt.

Other than that, the paper contains the usual sections you would expect to find, include the games/cartoons, TV guide & movie/film/book reviews. The reviews section is a little strange, in the sense that it seems to take a very high brow view of everything, and can harshly criticise anything that doesn't slip into the Oscar nomination category. This seems a fairly strange approach for a paper that is simply written and attracts a wide audience, most of whom, like myself, sometimes enjoy watching films that are easy to watch and fun as opposed to artsy. I tend to ignore the review section.

One of my favourite parts of the paper is a small section towards the middle which gives people the opportunity to write in with their comments on various news issues. People really do become quite irate at various issues and some of the letters published you can't help but just laugh about.

For a free paper this really is quite a decent read and a great way to pass the time whilst on the train.

Summary: Pick yourself up a copy.