Metro, London's free, daily, today celebrated its 10th birthday with the inclusion of a 12 page chronicle of its first decade, reports Media Guardian.

Daily Mail and Associated Newspapers launched Metro in 1999 after the success of the free newspaper model in Sweden. They secured a 10 year distribution deal with the London Underground to make the paper available, free every morning at tube stations.

There were 85,000 copies of the first 40-page edition. The front-page splash that day was the death of civil rights campaigner and solicitor Rosemary Nelson, killed by a car bomb planted by a loyalist paramilitaries outside her home in Northern Ireland," detailed this morning's Metro.

The paper has now grown to more than 1.3 million daily readers across the United Kingdom, which includes partnerships with regional publishers to supply local editions of the Metro around the UK.

Metro is now distributed in 16 major UK cities through regional publishing partnerships with Trinity Mirror, Northcliffe Media, Johnston Press and Guardian Media Group.

The 10th annivesary also marks the first threat to Metro's monopoly over the newspaper supply to the tube, as the contract to supply newspapers to the London underground network comes up for tender next month, Media Guardian reported. The 10-year initial contract allowed Metro to dominate the underground press. However rumors surrounding the new deal, beginning around April next year, said it will include an afternoon edition, which creates an opportunity for other publishers