yelvington.com

Metro International, the world's largest free-newspaper operation, is putting together a real Internet strategy and "The web will be completely different from the paper, says Sakari Pitkänen, editor in chief of Metro Sweden," according to the Swedish blog Media Culpa.

Good for them. I've always been disappointed by the websites of other free newspapers, such as 20 Minutes and the Examiners. These newspapers are good ways to burn 20 minutes of subway-riding time without having to look at the weirdo in the seat opposite, but they're not great newspapers, and building an "online newspaper" with their content as raw material makes even less sense than the usual "online newspaper" strategy.

There's an opportunity for Metro to tap into the common concerns of city commuters by building community around the experience. Will they? We'll be watching.

Thanks to The Editors Weblog.

Chicago's Sun-Times is killing the free newspaper Red Streak, which it launched hurriedly in an attempt to counter the Tribune's Redeye. In Iowa, Lee Enterprises is shutting down Your Mom, a very cool project that was built in conjunction with Northwestern University (but it's keeping the website). Lost Remote takes notice of this and concludes "young people do not want print."

I don't think that's it at all. I think the problem is that a big company has a very hard time focusing on a small project and an even harder time running a "side business" that generates tiny profits. These efforts might in fact be the wave of the future, but they won't be the wave for the parent company.

A startup -- two guys in a garage, or one backed by a zillionaire -- might be delighted just to be in the black at this stage. But newspapers are addicted to the 20 percent solution. Anything that doesn't deliver fat operating margins from the get-go might send the wrong message to Wall Street.