How Metro created media history

– Has this ever been done before?
– No…
– Great – Let´s do it!

This is how it all began: in an office in Stockholm, winter 1994. Three journalists – Pelle Anderson, Robert Braunerhielm and Monica Lindstedt – could hardly believe their ears. After countless Swedish banks, money lenders, investors and media companies had declined their proposal, somebody had finally said yes. His name was Jan Stenbeck, Chairman of the Kinnevik Group.

It’s not surprising that Stenbeck was the only person brave enough to take a risk on what was then a groundbreaking idea. So, on a cold February morning in 1995, a new newspaper was born: The first issue of Metro was launched in Stockholm. It was a runaway success. Metro revolutionized a traditional industry to become the world’s largest global daily newspaper.

Within a few years, it was to launch in Prague and soon after in Budapest, the Netherlands, Helsinki, Chile, and Philadelphia, among others. It was a simple idea – news for free, at the right place and at the right time. It would be a free daily newspaper in a smart format distributed in high-traffic commuter zones and public transport networks in the city centers.

Metro has become a global tour de force, yet it has always remained what it set out to be; a local newspaper with global news, delivering local content to a local audience.

Metro has a simple concept and product, which is also simple to copy. Reflecting Metro’s own success, many media players are copying our products and our way of conducting business. This is what has made Metro’s history a revolutionary and entrepreneurial one. Metro is the pioneer of a new line of business within an old industry – we are not only a newspaper. Metro has redefined a business by promoting a landmark transition of the daily newspaper industry.

Today, Metro is the most read free daily newspaper in the United States.