Friday’s ‘Metro Herald’ to be freesheet’s final edition
Freesheet’s business model deemed ‘unsustainable in a difficult advertising environment’
Print16 December 2014
Dublin freesheet Metro Herald will publish its final edition this Friday, 19 December.
Fortunegreen Ltd, the joint venture company which owns the newspaper, said its business model had become “unsustainable in a difficult advertising environment” and was not viable any longer.
Redundancies will be necessary for all staff, including 13 full-time positions and a number of part-time casual workers who distribute the paper on weekday mornings.
Fortunegreen is owned equally by The Irish Times Ltd, Independent News & Media (INM) and DMG Ireland Holdings Ltd, which publishes the Irish Daily Mail. The title was printed at Citywest by The Irish Times Ltd’s plant.
Paul Crosbie, Fortunegreen’s MD, said Metro Herald had been “fighting a rear-guard action” due to a “prolonged recession” and evolution within the media industry.
“It’s extremely unfortunate that we have come to this decision, which sadly means the loss of jobs. Metro Herald, and the people who have worked here, have been extremely resourceful and hard-working, breaking new ground in creative print advertising,” Crosbie said.
Metro Herald was formed in 2010 from a merger of two competing freesheets: Metro, which was supported by The Irish Times Ltd, DMG and Swedish publisher Metro International, and Herald AM, which came from the INM group.
Metro was first introduced to Dublin in 2005 and INM responded by launching Herald AM. Both titles recorded significant losses in the first five years as they fought for readers and advertisers, with both companies subsequently believing it made “commercial sense” to merge the titles.
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