THE free daily newspaper popular with commuters, Metro, is to distribute an extra 250,000 copies per day, a move likely to add further pressure on publishers of paid-for titles.

Metro, owned by Associated Newspapers, which is ultimately owned by Daily Mail & General Trust, will begin circulating an extra 205,000 copies in London and another 45,000 across eight other editions published around the UK.

The planned extra copies will take Metro’s daily circulation to 1.36m in the UK, cementing its position as Britain’s fourth-biggest daily newspaper behind The Sun, the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror.

Metro launched in March 1999, securing an exclusive deal to distribute the paper at London Underground stations. Since then, it has added several regional editions and is published in 15 other cities in the UK, including Brighton, Glasgow and Newcastle. Since 2005, it has produced an edition in Dublin.

The additional papers will be made available at an extra 250 stations, predominantly in the southeast. Its biggest markets outside the capital are Scotland, Manchester and Birmingham.

While Metro has been a commercial success over the past decade, its growth has coincided with a decline in the sales of daily newspapers.

Associated estimates that national titles have lost 1.3m buyers over the past five years. Figures compiled by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the body that records newspaper and magazine sales, showed that last month, for example, all daily papers, except the Financial Times, suffered a year-on-year fall in circulation.

Analysts say there are several reasons for the decline but the internet poses the biggest threat.

One challenge for newspaper publishers has been to continue to attract younger readers. Steve Auck-land, managing director of Metro, said the paper was “enormously popular with young, affluent readers”, and their average age was 34.

He added that Metro would be producing more copies to head off criticism that availability was being limited to those commuters travelling early in the rush hour.

“We do get complaints that people can’t get a copy after 7 or 7.30am because they are all gone,” he said.

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