By: Charles Geraci When you emerge from the subway in certain parts of Manhattan in the morning, you may be met by a pair of competing old-style newspaper hawkers, giving away copies of the city's recently launched free dailies, amNewYork and Metro. Both are tabloids and usually about the same in size (two dozen or so pages), but there the similarities often end -- as a comparison of today's issues illustrates.
While amNewYork focuses more on local coverage, Metro emphasizes national and international fare. In today's editions, amNewYork ran three times as much local news as Metro, which had twice as much national and international coverage.
The front pages of each daily mirrored these preferences. Metro featured a story on the new interim government in Iraq, while amNewYork ran a story about a young model shot on the subway (a piece certain to hit home with much of the straphanging audience). Their clever headline read "Subway Fashion Shoot" and was surrounded by three color publicity photos of the victim. Metro ran only a short Associated Press story about the attack, on Page 6, although it ran a teaser above its logo on Page 1.
AmNewYork had more teasers on Page 1, including a Web poll on "partial birth" abortions and a weather forecast (missing on Metro's front page). Metro did fit in an ad next to its logo, however, for SilverStar Motors.
The papers also differ in their levels of advertising. Less than a quarter of 24 pages in today's Metro were consumed by ads, while over 40% of amNewYork's 28 pages (minus a special 20-page "summer guide" section) were ad-driven. In addition, amNewYork, which hit the streets in October 2003, contains a classified section and has its own Web site, while Metro does not.
Both papers ran numerous AP stories and graphics, but amNewYork also carried many more staff-written stories and some content from the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post.
The sports sections are comparable, with slight differences. For instance, baseball news was given a full page in Metro, while only a couple of short stories made amNewYork.
There are three pages of entertainment in today's Metro, compared with less than a page in amNewYork (which is devoted to Hollywood gossip). In addition, Metro lists top picks from TimeOut New York, in categories including food, art, music, comedy and theater.
Metro also contains a travel section, absent from amNewYork, which ran three pages of health coverage.
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