Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
The Swedish press group Metro International has halted operations in Poland where the free newspaper Metropol was distributed in 10 cities, owing to losses of several million dollars.
"Friday, January 5, 2007 was the last publication date of Metropol" in Poland, a statement said on Monday.
"Metro Poland did not manage to reach the level of profitability and growth targets required for each of our projects," the group added.
In 2006, Metro Poland posted an operating loss of 3.7 million dollars (2.8 million euros), with average readership of 700,000 during the week and 1.2 million on weekends.
The company, which had employed 70 people, began operations in Poland in 2000.
Metro and another free newspaper, 20 Minutes, have nonetheless redrawn parts of the media landscape in Europe and elsewhere with a formula that attracts advertising by reaching a large group of consumers.
bo/wai/shn
Sweden-Poland-press-industry-company-Metro
AFP 091941 GMT 01 07
COPYRIGHT 2006 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved.
