British freesheet Metro may soon be extending its brand to radio, under a new plan by owner Daily Mail and General Trust.
The scheme centres on turning London medium-wave station LBC – currently up for sale along with the rest of parent London News Radio [WAMN: 22-Jan-02] – into LBC Metro.
LNR’s owners include Reuters, GWR and ITN. DMGT, which owns 1% of the group, has contacted GWR, urging it to keep hold of its stake. The Metro owner would then invest in the station, which would subsequently take on the paper’s branding.
Around 1.7 million people read Metro in cities across the country. The freesheet was launched in 1999 as a pre-emptive strike by DMGT against an expected move into the UK by Sweden’s Metro International, owner of numerous identically named papers around the world.
Data sourced from: MediaGuardian.co.uk; additional content by WARC staff
