Mariana is between 29 and 33 years. She lives in São Paulo – by herself or maybe with her boyfriend or flatmates. She drives a Renault Clio but she really wants a mini-SUV. She earns between R$4000 and R$5000 a month and travels abroad at least once a year. But Mariana is not real. Actually, she exists in many places in the world at the same time. In Sweden, her name is Sara. In Mexico, Concepción. This is the reader idealized in several workshops used to train the Metro teams and the newspaper is made based on this reader.

Its editions, written in 20 different languages, can be found in 82 cities or regions of 21 countries – like São Paulo, where it has been available since May 7, 2007. And best of all, especially for its 22 million readers worldwide, it is free. It all began in 1995 when Swedish group Investment AB Kinnevik launched the first edition of the Metro, which was distributed for free in the public transport network of the Swedish capital. It was named after the concept of metropolis and not after the metro. The target audience was young and educated adults, with access to cable TV, Internet and cell phones, who were not readers of the traditional broadsheets. Just like our Mariana.

In Brazil, the Metro International newspaper group got together with media group Grupo Bandeirantes de Comunicação. It was observed that the freesheet’s target audience was found not in the public transport network but in private cars. So around 150 thousand copies (this number will increase to 200 thousand in the coming months) are distributed daily by the traffic lights of the so-called Brazilian Manhattan. But why have a woman as the "model reader"? "Because newspapers are usually made for men", answers Ricardo Anderáos, the Metro Brazil managing editor. “Moreover, the female audience is, by definition, more compassionate, concerned and integrated. A newspaper made with women in mind is more sensitive to topics on the environment, social issues, relationships, sex, romance....The newspaper becomes more social." Based on feedback from readers, Ricardo guarantees that, when he makes the freesheet based on his Mariana, he also satisfies a diverse audience that ranges from high schoolers to old ladies.  

Journalist Ricardo Anderáos, aged 46, began his career in the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper 20 years ago. He created a CD-Rom magazine (the first of its kind in Brazil) called Neo, worked as an Internet consultant and helped create UOL, the Universo On Line portal. While at the Grupo O Estado de S. Paulo, he developed the Link project, which included weekly IT supplements for the Estadão and the Jornal da Tarde newspapers and a daily radio show at Eldorado Radio.

In December 2006, he was approached by a headhunter to develop the Brazilian version of the Metro newspaper. He accepted on the spot. “This was a chance to do what no one had ever done in Brazil: a quality freesheet for a young educated audience”, he explains. “People tend to think that all free newspapers are the same. It is like saying that a Learjet is like a Boeing, which is like an Airbus, which is like an Embraer. The business model may be similar, in the case of both the airplane and the freesheet, but the product g fis completely different. In Brazil, there is a concept that if it is free, it is bad. We are trying to change this.”

Regardless of being free of charge, the Metro has become a product recognized for its editorial and graphic quality. “The idea is to provide concise information. No one, in the daily life of a city like São Paulo, has time to read a newspaper from start to finish”, says Ricardo Anderáos. He also sees the social aspect of his job. "We are introducing young people to the daily newspaper, creating the habit of reading and following the news and forming citizens. But you do not achieve this with a tiresome newspaper”. 

For such, Ricardo works with a team of 16 journalists aged between 25 and 35 years (there are around 500 in the 86 Metro in the world) to make the newspaper. According to him, the freesheet is doing well financially: out of all the Metro operations, the São Paulo one (which is also the youngest) is the one that became profitable in less time. Before the launch of the first Metro, it was a bit difficult to persuade the advertising industry, which is now starting to see the strength of free quality media and of the distribution of this product.  Recently, on occasion of the launch of a Nokia cell phone with GPS, the Metro went to the streets with different jacket covers, which showed the exact intersection where the driver received the copy of the newspaper, with the title: “You are here”.

What other vehicle has the ability to produce such segmented information?” proudly asks André. The freesheet is expected to be launched in other Brazilian metropolises soon. After all, there are already 15 Metro in Spain, 12 in France, 10 in Poland, 8 in Italy, 7 in Canada, 6 in Croatia…