Shawn Moynihan, formerly the online and managing editor at Editor & Publisher magazine, has joined Metro US as city editor of their New York edition. His first day was today.

Moynihan replaces Matt Sweeney, who recently left to for a job in city government.

“Given Shawn’s experience as an editor, and specifically his background covering the media industry as online and managing editor at Editor & Publisher, he is a great fit to help lead our energetic, ambitious newsroom and establish Metro New York’s local news section as a must-read for the city’s young, urban, affluent, professional readers,” Tony Metcalf, editor-in-chief, says.

With editions in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Long Island, Metro US has the fifth highest audited daily circulation of all U.S. newspapers

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The new look will include a “sleeker design and more sophisticated look while maintaining the concise, contemporary and colorful elements readers look for every day,” said publisher Metro International. The paper will also now have an “oversized masthead,” new “bold” headline fonts and an updated color palette. Seems like they’re giving up inches previously dedicated to content to a new stylish design meant to draw in readers of the free pub.

The Metro‘s content will now be split into three sections: news, “My Metro,” and sports. Metro will also feature contributions of “industry experts,” many of which come from the Web, like Chow.com, Thrillist, DealBreaker.com, Geeksugar and Flavorpill as well as traditional media like CNN, Fodor’s and Conde Nast magazines Self, Wired and Lucky.

“Heightened expert analysis, commentary, powerful pictures and reader views will enhance Metro‘s editorial core keeping the news dynamic, fresh and interesting,” said Tony Metcalf, Metro U.S.‘s editor-in-chief. “Metro is known to innovate, changing print and design history several times, and leading the pack in targeting the hard-to-reach metropolitan. This redesign is the next stage of that.”

Related: Newsday‘s New Look

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Says editor-in-chief Tony Metcalf: “We believe that the future of our titles lies in producing as much of our own material as possible. Encouraging existing staff to write more and employing new writers gives us a higher degree of flexibility and results in a product which is more relevant to the young, professional audience we, and our advertisers, seek.”

Also, as we all know, the AP is expensive and now that the City section is on its last legs there’s plenty of writers looking for a place to tell their local stories. Full release after the jump.

*Update* Statement from the AP: “The Associated Press understands that a lot of newspaper companies are reexamining their strategies in this challenging economic climate. Metro remains an international customer of the AP.”

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