Borrowing an idea that has been popular in the West for years, the Jiefang Daily Group and Shanghai Metro Operation Co Ltd will officially launch a new free-of-charge newspaper in 48 metro stations around the city this month.

Editors have been pub-lishing and distributing a small print run of "Metro Express" for the last three weeks, but the paper won't make its full-blown debut until it makes further impro-vement on its distribution network in the subway stations.

With the local newspaper market becoming increa-singly competitive, it's tough for a new paper to earn a market niche, said Niu Yefang, the paper's editor-in-chief.

"We choose to explore a new distribution channel and make use of the rapidly growing metro industry," said Niu. "We are targeting people who take the metro in the morning and who have a relatively high income."

The 24-page tabloid will cover everything from politics and business to sports and entertainment, with an emphasis on short stories that can be read during a quick subway ride and lots of pictures and graphics.

The paper, which will be published four times a week, will have a relatively small staff of 21, with only nine reporters, but will make use of stories from other papers in the Jiefang group, including the Jiefang Daily and the Morning Post.

It will also contain one page of English copy every day provided by Shanghai Daily.

"Nearly 300,000 people crowd the city's metro system between 6:30 and 9:30 every morning. The planned 150,000 circulation is certain to attract many advertisers," Niu said confidently.

Yu zhenwei, a journalism professor at Fudan Uni-versity, said the new paper could have a huge effect on traditional papers, stealing both readers and advertisers, but it must prove to readers that its price isn't an indication of its quality.

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