Deconstruction of Newspaper: 'Metro'

Metro
'Metro' is a long running newspaper which has been running from 1999. It is distributed in the urban areas of London for free from monday to friday. It is part of the same media group as the 'Daily Mail' and 'Mail on Sunday' but the paper operates as a franchise, with a local newspaper publisher. Their are other local versions also in operation in Birmingham, Brighton, Edingbourgh, Glasgow, Sussex e.t.c.

The newspaper was designed to be read in 20 minuits. In it's first five years the paper achieved a readership of over 1 million readers, making it the UK's fourth largest daily newspaper behind the likes of large conglomorate tabloid papers like 'The Sun', 'The Daily Mail' and 'The Daily Mirror.' It's distribution is still on a gradualrise and is highly desireable to advertisers mainly due to it's high youthful audience.

Front Cover:

The size and position of the picture on the front page is a very important code for the reader; it adds depth to a story making it real and is a major selling point. The metro has a picture of pop singers Rihanna and Katy Perry. The picture is important as it is not related to any of the headlines on the page instead their is a caption below the picture giving a little detail and telling the reader that it continues on page 30. The picture is seperated from the main headline and story by the help of fine lines. The headline is shocking which lures people in. It is about the death penalty which is highly controversial and the fact that half of us back it. The Headline is in black and is bold ecspecially against the white background which is a common feature of many newspapers. The picture and main story including the headline are both of a similar size of 11cm in width and 22cm in length. The fact that the picture and main news story are totally different and are in no way related show how the paper aims at everyone. In many ways the picture although having no story; is just as important, it helps to sell the paper and is in many ways a secondary lead. Its importance can be noted due to the fact it is given exactly the same amount of space on the front cover as the lead story.
The story has two columns both 5cm in width. The reporters name is placed above the second coloumn and is in bold with a fine line above it which differentiates it between the headline and the main text.

On the left hand side of the page their is a side bar with four different stories and a small drawing. The four small story captions all relate to different things and they have a word before the headline explaining what it is, for example; ' News, World, Showbiz and Sport' are put in captil and bold and is in a different colour to the headline which is in black. It therefore has somthing that appeals to everyone.

At the top of the page there is the title, it is placed at the top left hand side of the page and is similar to that of 'The Sun' or 'The Mirror' in the fact that it has white writing which is placed on a coloured rectangle; the only difference is that the other two have red rectangles with the 'Metro' having a blue rectangular background instead. There is also a red triangle placed diagonal near the 'M' and has the word 'FREE'. Below this there are two other stories one on Jenson Buttonwith a heading and sub heading and a small picture next to it and then another heading and sub heading; this time about the 'Winchester Alien'; there is also a drawn picture of the alien at the top. Inbetween this picture and the title there is the information of the paper which includes the date and its website. The placement of this is not conventional to other papers who usually make this information much smaller and on top or sometimes below the title.

First Page:

The inside page has a large advert which is noticeable due to the fact it is in orange and the other colours on the page are prodominatly blue/black. Also the advert is written in a different word style to the rest of the page. Their are lots of different sections on the page telling general news like the weather. Although quite large on the page, the advert is much bigger. The advert for 'easy jet' is 15cm in width with the weather box 11cm. The advert is placed on the bottom left hand side of the page with all the editorial content placed around it. The advert is clearly seperated from the fine lines around it.

The weather section on the newspaper although split into different parts; for instance the weather today, tomorrow and the tempratures around Europe. Altogether it takes up around the same space as the advert and is seperated by a thick blue line down the middle of the page. They also give the information of the maximum and minimum temperature and the sunrise and sunset times.

At the top of the page their is all the information of the paper such as the date and the page number; this is a similar convention to all other papers that I have looked at. On the top section of the page their is more general information; it has how you can contact the paper and other services that Metro offers such as how you can get metro on your mobile. Their is also a small context/'menu' and just below this their are the national lottery numbers. These sections are split into different little columns all of the same design and all 5cm in width. I have noticed that the paper does have a more consistent colour scheme to other papers that I have looked at.