Britain’s biggest free weekly newspaper is about to get bigger with the introduction of a 16-page pullout magazine.
The expansion means two more staff have been taken on at Manchester Metro News, an offshoot of the Manchester Evening News.
Metromagazine will be a mainly lifestyle orientated newsprint pullout within the paper. The magazine’s title was going to be “&” but research found that readers didn’t “get it”.
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Launched in 1987, the Manchester Metro News has a distribution of 300,000 and is owned by Guardian Media Group. News coverage is 60 per cent from its own staff and 40 per cent repackaged from the Manchester Evening News.
Metromagazine will include regular features on celebrities, fashion, food, shopping, property, health, reviews, previews and competitions.
To promote the launch of the new section, MMN is to give away a £10,000 prize to one of its readers.
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Editor Richard Butt said: “While nothing sells newspapers, even free ones, like news, we appreciate that our readers are looking for something more these days. We’re going to offer them a longer read than we did.
“We hope that means they’ll enjoy the paper more, spend more time reading it and give our advertisers better value for money.
“The Guardian Media Group has invested heavily in one of its best-loved products, which means I have two more staff, and more money to spend on our features.”
Metromagazine will be edited by features editor Justin Connolly. The redesign was undertaken by MEN design editor Peter Devine.
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