Metro is advancing its focus on digital, launching its first mobile service and two new online portals.

Associated Newspapers-owned Metro will feed the print edition's national news and entertainment content into Metro Mobile for online-capable mobile phones. The two online portals will centre around user-generated and music content, and is backed by a six-figure investment, Brand Republic reported Tuesday.

Metro Mobile has been soft launched, and is accessible through mobile URLs m.metro.co.uk and www.metro.mobi. The official, commercial launch date is expected early in 2008, and the newspaper group is aiming for 50,000 mobile users per month. Metro has signed on the advertising sales group 4th Screen to sell mobile ads.

“We are on the cusp of an explosion of mobile content. It is not yet a huge revenue generator, but we need to be in that space,” said Jamie Walters, head of digital for Metro, according to Brand Republic.

Walters said Metro Mobile will differentiate itself from other newspapers moving into mobile (such as The Sun, Johnston Press and Trinity Mirror) by allowing users to access user-generated content.

Metro's two new online portals will focus on that user-generated content as well as music content, with a revenue model for each site, video clip site MEview and music site MEmusic. Users can upload video clips onto MEview for free, and can choose a 10 to 15 second pre-roll ad to run around the clip. The user can then collect a share of the cost-per-thousand views rate Metro charges the advertisers, according to Brand Republic.

For the music-sharing site, users can upload their own music and listen to tracks for free, or download MP3 files for 79 pence, of which content owners get 70 percent.