Metro Silicon Valley Launches PDF Download Edition

Business Wire, Oct 3, 2003

News Editors/Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 3, 2003

Metro Silicon Valley, the San Jose metropolitan area's largest circulation weekly, has become the first member of its industry to launch a fully downloadable newspaper.

Readers can now download all editorial sections at www.MetroPDF.com each Wednesday. The PDF (portable document format) edition is available free worldwide, 24 hours a day and includes the Metro's advertisements, original typography, story layouts and graphics.

"It's not an HTML web page -- it looks exactly the way a newspaper's supposed to look," said Metro Newspapers CEO Dan Pulcrano. "It looks like Metro."

"In the first several weeks, we've seen people download it from as far away as the Seychelles Islands, the Netherlands -- even New Jersey," Pulcrano added. "We also have many readers inside Silicon Valley's large technology companies. With downloads in the thousands already, it's clear that there is demand for Metro beyond what we can fulfill with the newsprint edition."

Readers can download the full newspaper, or just sections like news, film or music. The pages can be printed or read on-screen. When displayed on a computer monitor, viewers can zoom in to read articles in larger type, search for key words or phrases, or save the file to their hard disk.

"It's definitely the first alternative newspaper to offer itself in the PDF format," said Richard Karpel, executive director of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, an association of 123 non-daily papers in North America with aggregate free-circulation of more than 7 million. "Metro has been among the most innovative papers in its use of technology."

MetroPDF.com also contains live links to advertisers' web sites. Verizon Wireless purchased the first MetroPDF coversheet sponsorship. Metro plans to charge advertisers a small fee for linking from its PDF version. "It's a new distribution method to grow our readership -- and a new revenue model," notes Metro Group Publisher Alisa Cromer.

The edition was launched following conversations with San Jose-based marketing firm The Townsend Group, which arranged for the Verizon sponsorship. "Verizon views it as another way to talk to people in the workplace and as a non-intrusive way to keep their visibility," said Townsend Group CEO Mark Townsend.

Metro worked with San Jose's Lightsource Studios to develop MetroPDF's mascot, a dog with a newspaper in its mouth and a jet pack strapped to its back.

MetroPDF is compatible with almost all popular browsers and computing platforms. The PDF edition is viewed with Adobe Acrobat Reader, a free download. Acrobat Reader runs on Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris. It can be read on desktop, laptop, tablet or handheld computers. Acrobat Reader operates both as a stand-alone product and as a plug-in to major browsers, including Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, and is already installed on most newer computers.

Metro was the first weekly to combine voice messaging technology with classified advertising in the mid-1980s and, in 1993, launched the pioneering free online service, LiveWire, which combined newspaper content with message boards, live chats and email. Metro also operates, through its Boulevards.com subsidiary, the world's largest network of e-commerce enabled city.com sites. Boulevards sites such as SanFrancisco.com and LosAngeles.com offer hotel and dining reservations, car rentals, tour packages and leisure-related information in more than 100 cities.

In addition to Metro Silicon Valley, Metro Newspapers publishes Metro Santa Cruz and the North Bay Bohemian, which is based in Sonoma County. Metro Santa Cruz and the Bohemian plan to introduce PDF editions in the coming weeks.

Adobe Acrobat, Acrobat Reader, Boulevards, Internet Explorer, Linux, LiveWire, Microsoft, Netscape Navigator, Solaris, Verizon and Windows and are trademarks of their respective holders.