Cousins in arms

Today's NYT picks up a piece from the International Herald Tribune on the growth of free metro newspapers in Europe.

"Traditional newspapers look at us as thieves and criminals that are here to steal their readers," said Metro's chief executive, Pelle Tornberg, 48, a Swede who presides over the company's growing empire from an office in the elegant Mayfair district of London. "They're right."

I used to share that mindset, but I've come to realize in recent weeks that the much bigger opportunity lies in the educated upscale reader who isn't reading the Daily Fishwrap.

Part of the not-so-secret Metro formula is to hold down costs. It does not own any printing presses, outsourcing the work, and its skeletal staff of writers is expected to do every task around the newsroom.

"The Metro newsroom is based on versatile journalists who can do interviews, take pictures and lay out the pages and do the copy editing," said Didier Pourquery, editor in chief of Metro France, which publishes six editions, including ones in Paris and Toulouse. "That's why we have productivity among the highest in the French press, with only 33 people in all Metro France."

Not so far from our concept. But look out! The International Labour Organization is already getting itchy about the new world order,:

Impact of greater time constraints and pressures to produce up-to-date information is cited as reasons for compromising journalists' safety and health.

"This has meant new work patterns for workers who even earlier did not have regular hours, eight-hour days, or set meal breaks, and are often employed on short-term, intermittent and precarious contracts."

Really, I don't make this stuff up.

Comments

[Bruce]

I love the Metro newspapers; it's what should have been emulated at the AMJE. Dallas was hurt by the fact that it's not got a true commuter market (yet) like Montreal or the northeastern U.S. cities that have it. And these papers have to have something the gorilla doesn't...not the least important of which is responsiveness.