About four years after hitting the streets, amNew York and Metro have built a niche audience among younger readers, and these papers are also popular among advertisers, even if their daily distribution (about 300,000 copies in New York City) is about half that of tabloids the New York Post and the Daily News.

amNew York has been profitable since mid-2006 and its ad revenues were projected to grow about 12% in 2007.

amNew York’s success has been in large part based on supprot from its sister paid-for publication Newsday, the leading paper in Long Island, published by Tribune Co.

The freesheet piggybacks on advertising deals, uses Newsday content and lowers printing costs by using the same plant.

"We're able to realize synergies across the two products, but we're not cannibalizing each other," says Terry Jimenez, publisher of amNew York and chief financial officer of Newsday.

Metro, on the other hand, has had a harder time establishing itself in the New York. Its editorial content is slightly more ‘broadsheet’ than tabloid. For instance, it regularly features book coverage. It also publishes series of custom-published supplements relating to theatre and films, among others.

“The beefed-up paper costs more to produce, however. According to a newspaper source, Metro is suffering losses of as much as $500,000 a month,” reported Crain’s New York Business.

But Metro should post revenue growth above 20% in 2007, posting double-digit growth for its second year in a row.

In any case, freebies are anchoring their positions as viable newspapers in the US, at least in New York. Metro papers in Philadelphia and Boston are still struggling.

Source: Crain’s New York Business through I Want Media