Free daily Metro shuttered its edition in Spain on Friday as falling advertising revenue around the world impacts the print industry, Expatica reported.

Spain is also a place of "intense competition" in the newspaper industry, and the Sweden-based Metro will concentrate on growth in more profitable markets, said Per Mikael Jensen, chief executive of Metro International.

Metro, which publishes in 17 countries, is in fifth place in Spain in terms of readership, with 1.8 million readers, according to Expatica. There are three other popular free dailies, 20 minutos, Que! and ADN, in the country.

"Even though Metro in Spain has been losing less money than its Spanish free competitors, the worsening Spanish economic downturn, which during the beginning of 2009 has resulted in a collapsing advertising market, has now resulted in unsustainable losses," said Jensen, according to AFP.

Metro's Spain edition was launched in 2001, and was profitable by 2004; however, it has been reporting losses recently, AFP reported. It employed 80 people.

The Spanish economy is experiencing its first recession in 15 years.