HELSINKI GETS ENGLISH-LANGUAGE METRO ON JULY 1 Tidnings AB Metro will launch its first English-language daily newspaper tomorrow, in Helsinki, Finland. The newspaper, Metro Europe, will commence publication the same day as Finland takes over the chairmanship of the European Union. The newspaper will be printed in an edition of 15,000 initially. It will be distributed at airports in Helsinki, at major international hotels, via airport busses, the office for chairmanship of the EU, the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and at other locations central to the chairmanship. The daily will contain a summary of news with a European slant. The columnists include internationally known business people and politicians, such as Ritt Bjerregaard, Danish EU commissioner for the environment. Peter Ahlberg, vice president of MTG Publishing, comments, "We put this together quickly but believe that it is workable from a journalistic point of view and that there is a market for a newspaper like this." Metro Europe aims at international business people, diplomats, and politicians as well as other readers in Helsinki who seek accurate and concise news in English. "We are convinced that Metro will fill a need for this audience as well as it has in other places where the newspaper has been introduced," says Sakari Pitkänen, editor in chief. The editorial content will be produced in Helsinki, Stockholm, and Brussels. Metro and the secretariat for Finland's EU chairmanship agreed to collaborate on the English-language daily for the six months that Finland will chair the Union. Thousands of international business people, politicians, diplomats, and journalists are expected to visit Helsinki then. There are also hopes that Metro will follow the chairmanship around the EU. On January 1, 2000, the gavel will pass to Portugal. If the newspaper is well received in Helsinki and is commercially viable, a Lisbon edition could be next. Metro was first published in Stockholm in 1995. Two years later, the first foreign edition was published, in Prague. In 1998, local editions were added in Budapest and Gothenburg, Sweden. This summer, Metro was introduced in the Netherlands, and plans call for two more launches in 1999: in Helsinki, in Finnish, and in Malmö, Sweden, in Swedish. The newspaper is part of the Publishing business area of Modern Times Group MTG AB. MTG Publishing currently comprises Metro Stockholm, Metro Gothenburg, the Swedish financial daily Finanstidningen, and Metro Helsinki, to start later this year. Metro in Prague, Budapest, and the Netherlands are part of Metro International, formed at year-end 1998. For additional information, please contact Peter Ahlberg, vice president MTG Publishing, +46 8 402 9900 or +46 704 22 99 71. Modern Times Group MTG AB is listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange's O list (symbol: MTG) and the NASDAQ National Market (symbol: MTGNY). ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/06/30/19990630BIT00490/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/06/30/19990630BIT00490/bit0002.pdf