Freebie daily newspaper Metro New York is said to be ceasing operations after a 15-year run, according to a notice that appeared briefly on the papers twitter account on the evening of Jan. 3.

“Today Metro NY staff was informed that the publication is ceasing operations,” according to a notice that went up on the @metronewyork twitter feed at 8:40 p.m. but was deleted a short time later. “We extend a warm farewell to all of our loyal readers,” said the now-deleted tweet.

No further information was available. Ed Abrams, the group publisher of Metro US and one of its first employees in 2004, could not be reached late Friday.

Staffers at Metro New York and Metro Philadelphia were told on Monday that the company was being sold to Schneps Media, a weekly newspaper publisher that bought the city’s other freebie daily amNew York from Newsday in October. Newsday at that time laid off the entire staff and only three were hired by Schneps, which continued to publish the daily.

Schneps executives did not return calls regarding Metro.

When the freebie papers first began appearing in big cities in the US in the mid-aughts, the hope was that the papers would give a quick read to young commuters in urban areas and serve as an alternative to paid papers. But the recession caused advertising to dry up and consumers increasingly turned to mobile phones for news as cell coverage improved on subways and in rail terminals.

Seabay Media bought the money-losing Metro papers in New York, Philadelphia and Boston in 2009 from Metropolitan International, the Swedish company that had first introduced the free dailies to the US. Seabay did not return calls seeking comment.