Get yer 'ot news 'ere! (Metro)

Member Name: Boonoiy

Product:	Metro
Date:	17/12/01 (156 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free, Great journalism and features

Disadvantages: Creates a bit of litter - easy to throw away a freebie

Firstly, let me just acknowledge that there is more than one version of this newspaper, be it from Glasgow, Manchester, London or whatever. I only know the London one so I'll be forced to write on this.

Free! The main points to note is that the Metro is a free newspaper, collectable from the train station, tube station or from the seats of most of London's buses and tubes where you can usually find them discarded by the previous reader.

The paper:
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Well, where can one start?

Ads? - There's a lot of these but then again, what would you expect from a freebie? They range from the simple note types to the full blown, full page, ad-athons. They are really not too much of a hassle to me; they take up space but don't really take anything from the paper's news stories.

The Journalism - Not a single problem here, the paper's well written and has a lot of interesting, topical articles. Front-page sensationalism is not a problem; we always get the headline in bold (as with all papers really) and a snippet of what's to come, usually with the standard "turn to page x, column y" bit for the rest of the story. You get an in depth analysis of the major headlines, well reported and very informative.

Travel news - obviously in London there's a lot to report here, tube problems, bus cancellations and diversions and suggestions on the best alternative routes for getting from AS to B on time. This is a really helpful piece of the paper and is very well presented, usually on page 2. There's also a sort of travel page, done by London Underground as an info page, has a lot of "We're great, look for improvements soon" stuff on it, not really any use for me as they're always lying on this bit! The tube's rubbish and they won't convince me otherwise.

Classifieds - a big section of the paper this, from Monday to Friday we get a different
bit here, jobs are always there, ads are always there but the types change depending on the day of the week, Thursday if Media, Secretarial and Office vacancies for example.

TV guide - a daily guide to what is on TV for the day. Good bit. There's a pick of the day section, good bit of info on the film of their choice and 2 TV shows reviewed in detail, full listings are available for all TV channels.

Start the day - a great little section of the paper, there's a crossword, 3 little puzzles, and a word spiral thing that's always fairly taxing, but do-able. There are also the horoscopes here, useless things (sorry all) but take up a bit of time, and the little quote of the day bit.

Other features - Mail Metro, the "Letters forum" bit - always fun to read, 60 Second Interview - they ring up a celeb and ask a few questions, bit of a nothing bit for me but interesting for those of an OK!, Hello frame of mind and the little bits of info you get in the "On this day" and "This street named because of..." sections.

Overall:
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A great read, fills up time on the tube and above all IT'S FREE.

There's no real downside to this paper, maybe the fact that it creates litter in the city, but overall it is binned or picked up by other travellers, I think that a free paper is a great idea for the commuters, it saves a whole 30p per day on travelling expenses and gets you up to date with the world as it is. There are a lot of advantages to this paper, it's a great read, has lots of features and interesting facts and has a fun crossword and games page.

Wherever you are, be it city or (I'm told) small Scottish community, you'll be able to get a hold of the Metro in the morning rush hour, it's a good paper, have a read.

Summary: