Metro Boston, the free daily tabloid known for its provocative front pages, abruptly ceased operations Wednesday after providing commuters with news for nearly two decades.

The Boston Business Journal’s Don Seiffert broke the story, reporting that the subway publication shut down following the sale of its sister newspapers, Metro New York and Philadelphia, to Schneps Media. Schneps Chief Operating Officer Bob Bennett told Seiffert he didn’t know what the plan was for Boston’s Metro.

But a call to Metro advertising director Susan Peiffer yielded a voicemail that said, “Unfortunately, Metro Boston has ceased its operations. We thank our readers, advertisers, partners and vendors for your years of loyalties.”

A memo to staff from publisher Ed Abrams and Peiffer issued on Wednesday said it didn’t make sense to continue to operate the paper after the New York and Philadelphia Metro papers were sold, in part because they could no longer share central office resources.

Staffers learned they had worked their last day on January 3 via email, according to Boston Magazine, which partially credited the paper’s downfall to the rise of news reading on cell phones. It’s unclear how many people were laid off, but Boston Magazine’s Spencer Buell said only one editor and a few advertising staff remained last summer.

The daily tabloid had a fizzling circulation of around 50,000 near the end, and saw its heyday in 2005 when that number was 300,000.

Metro International, the original parent company, sold Metro Boston, along with the Philly and New York papers, to SeaBay Media LLC in 2009. The New York Times gained a 49 percent stake in the paper in 2005 for $16.5 million, which was later transferred to John Henry when he purchased the Boston Globe and the Telegram & Gazette in Worcester from the Times in 2013 for $70 million. Henry turned a profit on the deal by selling the Telegram & Gazette and the Globe’s real estate, but he still retained his stake in the Metro as recently as 2018.

Former staffers and freelancers at the Metro are lamenting the paper’s end,  and editors at Boston’s other publications are calling this a loss to the continually shrinking media landscape in the area.

Metro Boston was the last free tabloid daily. Jason Pramas, executive editor at one of Boston’s remaining free weeklies, DigBoston, wrote, “The collapse of any professional news outlet is dangerous at this moment in American history. Each publication or station we lose is another nail in the coffin of democracy. Communities need to organize to rebuild our shattered news infrastructure—especially at the local level.”

Pramas and other media professionals across the region are pushing for a bill proposed by state Rep. Lori Ehrlich of Marblehead that would create a commission to study the state of the media industry in Massachusetts and recommend sustainable local business models for news outlets.

Layoffs at publications across the region have marched on, and newsrooms continue to consolidate. Paywalls have gone up over the past decade at the Boston Globe, Boston Business Journal, and Boston Herald.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh was also saddened by the Metro’s passing. “To all the reporters, editors and people who worked hard to put this free paper out every day: thank you,” Walsh tweeted Wednesday. “The Metro will be greatly missed.”

SARAH BETANCOURT

BEACON HILL

Backers of various real estate transfer tax bills coalesce behind a single piece of legislation that would allow communities to place a tax of up to 2 percent on sales over $430,000 and a higher percentage on flipped homes. (CommonWealth)

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, seemed to pour cold water on the multistate Transportation Climate Initiative that Gov. Charlie Baker is pushing, joining New Hampshire’s Chris Sununu in raising doubts about the plan to slap a fee on gasoline wholesalers. (Boston Herald)

A push is on by Massachusetts businesses to extend the “single-sales factor” taxation scheme that some industries enjoy to all companies, but critics say it would cost the state a lot of revenue. (Boston Globe)

A Globe editorial says it’s time for the state to get on the online sports betting bandwagon.

MUNICIPAL MATTERS

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh wants to deploy $500 million for housing, but it’s not clear exactly what initiatives he would pursue with the money. (Boston Globe)

Globe columnist Joan Vennochi says Walsh is running hard to stay ahead of the footsteps of would-be challengers, a theme the Download sounded yesterday.

Lowell’s food banks and pantries are bracing for the loss of food stamp benefits after changes made to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program last month (Lowell Sun) 

Newly elected Braintree Town Councilor Steven Sciascia says he made a mistake when, in his first vote on the council, he voted in favor of nominating Councilor Shannon Hume as council president. He happened to cast the final vote, giving Hume five out of nine votes. Now the council is trying to figure out what to do. (Patriot Ledger) 

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

The US and Iran seem to have stepped back from the brink of any imminent wider conflict. (Washington Post) Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee called yesterday’s closed-door session for members of Congress on the intelligence that the Trump administration says prompted the decision to kill Iran’s No. 2 leader “probably the worst briefing I have seen, at least on a military issue, in the nine years I’ve served in the United States Senate.” (Washington Post)

ELECTIONS

It looks like we’re in for a rerun this fall of the costly — and somewhat complicated — 2012 “right to repair” ballot question showdown between automakers and independent service garages. (Boston Globe)

IMMIGRATION

A Brazilian immigrant, involved in several interesting immigration cases and facing deportation, cuts off his electronic monitoring device, and flees. (CommonWealth)

A UMass Amherst Iranian-American student was among scores of people detained at the US-Canadian border a day after the US killed an Iranian general with a drone strike. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

A 43-unit housing development in Falmouth is one step closer to being built after an approval was won from the town’s historical commission. (Cape Cod Times) 

Copart, a Texas-based vehicle auction company, has formally stated it does not intend to pursue its former plans of developing Fall River’s Weaver’s Cove as a storage site for vehicles, despite a recent appeal filed in land court regarding the project. (Herald News) 

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

State officials are sounding the alarm about a surge in HIV cases among homeless IV drug users. (Boston Globe)

The nation’s leading pharmacy chains, already being sued by two Ohio counties for causing the opioid crisis, file their own suit against the doctors who wrote the prescriptions. (The Hill)

The state’s Department of Public Health announced Wednesday the fourth death in the state from a vaping-related lung illness. (WGBH)

At the Brockton Neighborhood Health Center, nearly 150 people have been cured of hepatitis C since 2016. (The Enterprise)

TRANSPORTATION 

In the ongoing debate between Sen. William Brownsberger and TransitMatters over regional rail, Brownsberger weighs in a second time, stressing a focus on rush hour. (CommonWealth) Here’s Brownsberger’s original post and the TransitMatters response.

Deval Patrick, on The Horse Race podcast, recounts his own bruising battles on Beacon Hill for new transportation funds. But who are the four men who he says went into House Speaker Robert DeLeo’s office and changed the speaker’s mind? (CommonWealth)

The Metrowest Regional Transit Authority receives a state grant to explore offering service on Sundays. (MetroWest Daily News)

New Bedford city planners are hosting an interactive open house to ask residents what the future should look like around the two South Coast Rail stations planned for the city.  (Standard-Times) 

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

Central Maine Power wins a key approval for the power line it wants to build to bring hydro-electricity from Quebec into New England on behalf of Massachusetts ratepayers. (Portland Press Herald)

MEDIA

Eighteen Florida news outlets are now working together to cover climate change. (Nieman Journalism Lab)