A lot can happen in 10 years. On 16 March, 1999, when Metro burst onto the media scene, the average house price was £68,000, a pint of lager cost £1.95 and a freesheet was an advertising-heavy circular posted through people's doors.
A decade and the launch of London Lite, thelondonpaper and City AM later, free newspapers are as much a fixture of the daily commute as cursing London Underground. The free media phenomenon has turned the traditional newspaper publishing model on its head and a vast swathe of Generation Y now view paying for their daily fix of news, gossip and sport as a slightly odd, antiquated notion.
Ten years since its launch, Metro makes an annual profit of in excess of £8m and has been rolled out in 33 cities, giving it a presence in every major urban area. Metro's circulation of 1.3 million puts it neck and neck with the Daily Mirror, which it overtook in February to become the third-largest daily newspaper in the UK.
Steve Auckland, managing director of Associated Newspapers' free newspapers division, says: "Metro was a massive innovation, because it brought a new, younger readership into the market. All the nationals were trying to reach younger readers, but with limited success. All of a sudden, Metro transformed that."
Auckland, who presides over Associated's free portfolio of Metro, London Lite and Dubai free newspaper 7Days, has free media in his blood. His first managing director role was on the free Leeds Weekly News and he came to Associated's attention when he launched the rival Yorkshire Metro, a free paper published independently from the parent Metro by Yorkshire Post Newspapers.
The 40,000 copies of the Yorkshire Metro had only been on the streets of Leeds for one day before Associated Newspapers served a writ. Impressed by his chutzpah, Associated's then chief executive Murdoch MacLennan cut a deal with the Yorkshireman to run Metro's Yorkshire franchise, before moving him to London as managing director of the entire Metro brand.
Scary challenge
However, Auckland's battles were far from over. When he joined Metro in 2002, the newspaper had yet to make a profit, the regional partners were unhappy and media buyers remained hugely sceptical. He says: "When I first looked at the profit and loss figures, I thought 'Christ what I have got into?' It was scary, but I believed that if we could get everything aligned, then Metro would be a great product."
Looking back 10 years later, Auckland believes the cornerstone of Metro's success is its audience of affluent "urbanites" - a term coined by former Metro managing director Mike Anderson and his marketing director Linda Grant. The average age of a Metro reader is 36, their average salary is £38,000 in London (£24,000 in regional cities) and most work in white-collar trades such as IT, finance and banking.
Metro monitors its valuable audience - and backs up its sell to advertisers - through its Urban Life panel of 5,000 readers, audited by BMRB. Auckland was "ecstatic" when Metro overtook the Mirror and plans to increase circulation further once the recession is over, but claims he does not "make a virtue" of the number of copies.
He says: "The key for us is getting the audience right. By putting on extra copies, we have not diluted our audience, which is the same today as when we launched."
Each day, Metro shifts more than 400,000 copies an hour between 6.30am and 9.30am, and it has expanded its catchment area to "feeder" stations such as Reading, Didcot and Brighton to reach readers at the start of their commute. As a result, there are fewer copies in central London, but Auckland insists he will rebid for Metro's London Underground pick-up bins contract when it expires next March.
He says: "The morning bins contract is desirable but not essential. London Lite has shown us that you can easily hand-distribute, so if we don't win the contract, we will be outside the Tube stations, handing out Metro as we do London Lite."
Auckland is pleased with the progress of Metro's gossipy evening sister London Lite - although it is still loss-making - and sees potential for Dubai's 7Days to expand into other Middle Eastern countries.
Cracking events
He also wants to crack events, with plans "well in place" for a sponsored music event for 2010, and to continue the slow burn of Metro.co.uk through quirky features, such as user-generated content sites MEview and MEmusic.
The journey from freesheet to respected media brand has not been easy and Auckland recognises that Metro, once the revolutionary challenger, will in its turn be usurped by the Next Big Thing, which he identifies as portable handheld devices.
He says: "Eventually, the BlackBerries, the eReaders and the iPhones will move onto the Tube and that is what our readers will look at - they won't be looking at Metro. If the market shifts significantly, then we will jump into that area."
However, there is life in the free newspaper model yet. He adds: "I believe the paper-based product will be number one on the tubes, buses and trains for the foreseeable future. Our readers place a value on Metro as part of their journey to work."
Just don't call it a freesheet. Auckland winces. "I hate that."
AUCKLAND ON ...
Lebedev's ownership of the Evening Standard
The acquisition is good for newspapers and good for London, as Lebedev is investing in a London brand. My understanding of what he is trying to do makes a lot of sense. I like the way he is trying to tap into a 45+ upmarket, opinion-forming audience through focusing on investigative journalism.
Free media
The best thing is that, because consumers don't pay for it, you choose the audience, not the other way around.
The Standard's plans to distribute free copies after 9pm Metro is an AM product and London Lite is distributed from 4.30pm to 7.30pm, so I don't see this as a problem. However, 9pm is too late. If the Standard is only selling a few thousand copies at 7.30pm, I would start giving it away then.
The rumoured launch of ShortList Media's free magazine for women
I wouldn't launch a new product at this time, but I wouldn't discount the idea - there is no reason why there shouldn't be a free weekly for women. The issue will be whether the title can match the production quality of the women's glossies.
CV
2006: Launched London Lite
2005: Launched Metro Ireland and 7Days (Dubai)
2004: Managing director Associated Newspapers' free newspapers division
September 2002: Managing director, Metro
February 2002: Deputy managing director, Metro
1998: Assistant group managing director, Regional Independent Media, and managing director, Yorkshire Post Newspapers
1996: Regional MD, Yorkshire United Provincial Newspapers
1983: Various managing director and commercial roles, Lancashire and Yorkshire regional newspapers
Home: Spends weekends with his family at his Yorkshire farmhouse and weekdays at his London flat