Melbourne Express was a free newspaper distributed on weekday mornings at suburban railway stations in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

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Melbourne Express was launched on 5 February 2001, one day before mX

MX

-Internet and computing:* .mx, an Internet top-level domain* MX record, an Internet data element used for routing email* WinMX, a file sharing program* Logitech MX Revolution, a computer mouse* Macromedia Studio MX, a web content software program...

, another free newspaper also aimed at commuters, but distributed in the evenings. mX was, and still is, published by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation

News Corporation

News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...

. Melbourne Express was published by News Corporation's main competitor, Fairfax Media

Fairfax Media

Fairfax Media Limited is one of Australia's largest diversified media companies. The group's operations include newspapers, magazines, radios and digital media operating in Australia and New Zealand. Fairfax Media was founded by the Fairfax family as John Fairfax and Sons, later to become John...

, publishers of Melbourne's broadsheet newspaper, The Age

The Age

The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...

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Melbourne Express ceased publication on the 7 September 2001. The final edition featured a single frontpage headline stating "So long, and thanks for all the fish" with short explanation explaining the reason for the decision.