Third U.S. Metro paper opens today in NYC

Newspapers have been published in New York City since 1725. But the first free paper, amNewYork, started seven months ago on October 10. Today the second free daily started. Metro New York is part of the Swedish chain of more than 50 papers which includes editions in Philadelphia, Boston and Toronto. Like amNewYork, Metro will be circulated on subway platforms, on the streets and through news racks. In the past seven months, amNewYork's circulation has jumped from 150,000 to 209,000 (audited). Publisher Russel Pergament says that since the audit, the circulation is up to 221,000 copies a day. Metro has got a long way to go. Both papers will be striving to reach the 18- to 34-year-old reader who has largely stopped reading newspapers and is coveted by advertisers. Metro New York's publisher is Henry Scott, who launched the NY Times's @times, a site on America Online.