Case Study: Metro achieves 500,000 downloads and 200,000 active subscribers with Quark's App Studio

Metro, Uk’s Leading Urban Media Brand, Launches on the Ipad in Newsstand

Metro, the UK’s leading urban commuter newspaper, needed to extend its bite-sized daily product to the iPad while keeping pace with tight newsroom deadlines and preserving the quality of its InDesign-based workflow. A previous PDF approach was limited, and as an Apple Newsstand launch partner Metro required a superior, user-friendly tablet edition that could be produced daily without disrupting existing processes.

Metro implemented App Studio’s plug-in solution—integrating with InDesign and HTML5 and supported by a dedicated production team—to publish overnight Newsstand editions with interactive features (video, galleries, color-coded navigation) while maintaining high quality. The app drove rapid audience and revenue growth: nearly 500,000 downloads in a little over six months, about 200,000 active subscribers, a 2012 Best Newspaper App award, and exceptional 15–20% click-through rates on full-page adverts.

Metro

Jamie Walters

Executive Director Digital