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Boston Metro shuts down

By adamg on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 4:15pm
Boston Metro announces its immediate shutdown

A Boston Metro reader forwarded this note he got today: After 19 years, the paper for subway riders is no more.

In the e-mail to readers, Publisher Ed Abrams and Associate Publisher Susan Peiffer say they had no choice to shut the paper after parent company Metro International sold its New York and Philadelphia editions to a rival freebie publisher last week, leaving them without access to the centralized resources that the three papers had long shared.

The paper quickly became memorable after its 2001 launch for the hawkers who would stand outside T stations giving away copies. A few years ago, Metro replaced them with simple racks. Of course, it was a different era then: Many people still read a newspaper on the way to work; few had phones able to provide them a stream of news and puzzles to keep them busy. For about a year, Boston even had two free newspapers: The Metro and Boston Now.

Abrams and Peiffer conclude:

As you continue to enjoy life in this beautiful city, we hope you will remember Metro Boston as fondly as we will remember you.

The two will keep their jobs running what's left of the Philadelphia Metro under its new owners. They did not say how many people lost their jobs with Boston Metro's closing.

H/t Gary.

Topics: 
Media
Free tagging: 
Boston Metro


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Comments

By anon on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 4:18pm.

their papers made excellent fire starting material for my wood stove.

By Smart Arse on Thu, 01/09/2020 - 6:57pm.

I recall reading quite a few stories about fires inside T stations being caused by newspapers getting onto the tracks and becoming ignited by the third rail.

Maybe it won't happen so much now.

By Ari O on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 4:21pm.

I remember when they had people pushing them into the hands of every commuter as they got on the T. Most were then thrown in the nearest trash can, and since those are few and fare between, most were just thrown on the ground. They were good for soaking up random T leaks. They seem to be more passively distributed anymore.

Now, if we could only get the same message from GlobeDirect!

By Laura82 on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 4:31pm.

I'm going to miss the daily sudoku. It was a nice break from my computer screen at lunch.

By jmeltzer on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 7:08pm.

the "easy" one could be done in about half an hour :-)

(the hard one was more like it)

By anon on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 4:35pm.

getting a globe direct mailing in my mailbox every week after repeatedly trying to get them to stop is going to cause me to have an anger induced stroke.

By Jeff_F_notloggedin on Fri, 01/10/2020 - 1:51am.

Its weird to be a lone pro-globedirect voice here but I’m actually being sincere. They havent delivered one to me for months, even though I’ve called and asked them to. I save at least a few dollars a week using the coupons and even more by using the circulars to plan my grocery shopping efficiently. All told its worth at least several hundred dollars a year to our household budget.

By sup3rmark on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 4:42pm.

they had a guy handing them out at back bay as recently as monday morning, so they were still using that model in at least a few places.

question is, will they be picking up their green metal boxes or leaving them wherever they were until someone else finally does something with them?

By roadman on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 4:35pm.

as they did.

I'll admit I'm gonna miss their hawkers dressed in costumes around Halloween though

By johnmcboston on Thu, 01/09/2020 - 8:19am.

"Read" a copy a few months ago that someone had left on the subway. It was thinner than it used to be, and the articles didn't say much - seemed like someone was summarizing what I had seen in the evening news than writing informative news articles. But, it was free.

By Gary C on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 4:51pm.

Or maybe that was long ago. I'm surprised that they would have to throw in the towel so quickly, if the Globe is the controlling owner. (Not that the Globe has tons of extra cash these days either.)

By adamg on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 6:10pm.

That went away when the Times sold the Globe to John Henry, somehow.

By SharpWave on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 4:54pm.

Been obsolete since smart phones and decent in-tunnel cell service arrived; at least 10 years.

By Lee on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 6:18pm.

... can afford or wants a smartphone or data. So not obsolete for everyone.

By Jim M. on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 7:50pm.

You are correct not everyone may afford a smartphone. Also, not every cell phone receives the Wi-Fi signal supposedly provided by the MBTA, as I tried recently to access my email on the T and received a message which said "No service."

By Ron Newman on Fri, 01/10/2020 - 6:55am.

What is it called and does it require a password?

I'm familiar with the MBTA Wi-Fi on commuter rail trains, but I've never seen it in the subway.

(In Columbus, Ohio, *every* COTA bus has free Wi-Fi. It's a great convenience.)

By Jongo Gurmola on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 8:00pm.

Yes, those people who cannot afford smartphones with data plans are definitely the individuals with the amount of disposable income required to keep an advertising-subsidized free newspaper afloat.

By bosguy22 on Thu, 01/09/2020 - 8:11am.

Of Americans own smartphones, up over 100% from 2011.

https://www.newmedia.org/post/how-many-people-have-smartphones

By Ari O on Thu, 01/09/2020 - 11:36am.

If you don't want a Smartphone with data but want to keep up with the news, there is a terrific service for that and it only costs a dollar or two per day.

If you just want something to read on the train, check out your local library! They will give you a book, for free, for several weeks. Plenty of time to read most any book given T delays.

By Anon on Thu, 01/09/2020 - 7:38am.

They were great to sit on to buffer your bottom from the filth of the seats on the T. I will miss it. And will be standing on any non-new O line train.

By Ron Newman on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 8:49pm.

to the same company that they sold NYC and Philly's papers to?

By Jim M. on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 7:44pm.

I thought another article linked form this page stated that Boston Metro was sold along with the New York and Philadelphia Metro newspapers.

By Ron Newman on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 5:45pm.

Today, or yesterday? If today, does it contain the closing announcement?

By Marco on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 5:53pm.

can we pour one out for Editorial Humor, Boston's greatest free paper to ever grace our streets/trains?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editorial_Humor

Recently found one in a box of old stuff from my parent's house. Damn that was a good paper!

By johnmcboston on Thu, 01/09/2020 - 8:22am.

Remember actually paying for that so I could get it delivered to my home. But yah, that was easily killed with the Internet. (Although I do subscribe to a comics site, that has a lot of editorials...)

By Scratchie on Thu, 01/09/2020 - 8:48am.

Can we have a sub-thread about the free papers of yesteryear?

Who remembers Street Magazine?

Does The Noise still publish a paper edition?

I happened to be in Newbury Comics recently and saw a current issue of Metronome, so I guess they're still around.

By anon on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 6:37pm.

Anyone remember Boston Now? The short-lived free daily competitor, circa 2006

By anon on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 11:08pm.

Yeah, I liked their crossword puzzle on long bus rides.

They went under as a result of the Iceland currency crisis.

By anon on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 6:49pm.

I was wondering why the green Metro boxes were empty.

By Matthew Miller on Thu, 01/09/2020 - 2:58am.

The time I came to an empty seat on the B line and picked up The Metro on the seat next to me and started reading it, and then the guy across the aisle started yelling at me for stealing his paper. I still don't know what the right reaction was supposed to be.

By anon on Wed, 01/08/2020 - 7:34pm.

That rag was never worth the paper it was printed on. And probably nobody remembers now, but in the beginning those "hawkers" they employed were extremely aggressive.They wouldn't take a polite no and were right up in your face. It wasn't one or two that did this, it was all of them. So they were obviously trained that way.

By CityGarden on Thu, 01/09/2020 - 3:43am.

Mine almost always had good advice for my day. Of course, so did the other eleven horoscopes.

By roadman on Thu, 01/09/2020 - 10:34am.

Whatever your horoscope tells you, expect the exact opposite to happen.

By Ishmael Jones on Thu, 01/09/2020 - 10:34am.

They were useful as a warning system, if you saw one spread over a seat you knew not to sit down there.