Metro's cuts show the open-web traffic model breaking

Press Gazette reported Metro is proposing around 60 job cuts from a risk pool of 90 staff, following the sudden departures of editor-in-chief Deborah Arthurs and executive editor Richard Hartley-Parkinson. Metro's UK online audience was 11.4 million in September, down 29% from May 2024, before Google's AI Overviews arrived in the UK, and down a fifth on the year. Metro's last print distribution figure was 952,483 a day in January, and the Evening Standard's site fell 13% to 8.9 million. Staff will know their fate by 9 November, with last working days on 30 November. The cuts follow Metro's transfer from DMG Media to Harmsworth Media and a review aimed at putting the brand "back on a sustainable footing".

The crux

A free title built on search and social distribution is being restructured by the same referral collapse hitting paid publishers, only with less subscription revenue to fall back on.

Sell-side read

For publishers without a subscription base, falling open-web audience translates directly and quickly into revenue cuts, because there is no second line to absorb the loss.

Watch

Whether Metro's content-creator roles and distribution realignment stabilise the audience, and what the review concludes on newsletters and advertising partnerships.