METRO LAUNCH IN GOTHENBURG Gothenburgers made the acquaintance of the Metro newspaper today. The paper's arrival has clearly aroused the interest of the city's residents - a number of distribution points reported that all copies had been taken before the morning was over, and all the advertising space in the first issues has been sold. The Gothenburg edition of Metro is produced in Gothenburg by the paper's own Gothenburg offices. Although the content of the paper to a large extent will be the same as in the Stockholm edition, there will be several pages of local material, ensuring that the paper has an identifiable West Sweden profile. Metro is to be available from Monday to Friday on all buses, trams and boats operated by Gothenburg Local Transport, which carries over 120 000 passengers every day. "We are happy to be able to offer newspaper readers and advertisers a local alternative. All the advertising space in the first numbers of the Gothenburg edition of Metro has been sold, and the reactions we have had from readers have been positive, so we look to the future with confidence", says Robert Braunerhielm, Vice President of MTG Publishing. The Metro concept is that the newspaper is free of charge to the reader, being financed by advertising income. The journalism is of a serious quality, and the paper aims to be so concentrated that readers can read the whole paper during their journey to work. "In three years the Stockholm edition of Metro has more than doubled its number of readers - it is now read by 604 000 people every day, according to the survey carried out by Orvesto, which makes it the second biggest newspaper in the Stockholm region. And in Prague it took us only a few weeks to establish ourselves as the biggest newspaper, with a circulation of 220 000.", says Braunerhielm, going on to add: "These two examples underline the strength of the Metro concept. Metro's continued expansion will henceforth take place beyond Sweden's borders; we plan to be up and running in Budapest towards the end of April, and a number of other cities have expressed considerable interest." For further information, please visit www.mtg.se, e-mail info@mtg.se or contact: Hans-Holger Albrecht, President & CEO tel: +46 (0) 8 562 000 50 Matthew Hooper, Investor & Press relations tel: +44 (0) 20 7321 5010 MODERN TIMES GROUP MTG AB Skeppsbron 18, Box 2094, SE-103 13 Stockholm, Sweden Tel. +46 8 562 000 50 Fax. +46 8 20 50 74 (Publ) Registration No. 556309- 9158 www.mtg.se ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2004/01/05/20040105BIT00160/wkr0001.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2004/01/05/20040105BIT00160/wkr0002.pdf