The Quebecor group will no longer publish the paper edition of its news media 24 hourswhich had been distributed free of charge for 20 years in metro stations and on the public transport network in Montreal.
The end of the paper edition of 24 hourswhich had already been reduced to a single publication per week for two years, also occurs in the wake of the 240 job cuts in Quebecor’s media activities which were announced in mid-February.
The newspaper 24 hours was launched by Quebecor in 2003 to compete with the free daily Metrolaunched two years earlier by the printer and publisher Transcontinental, in the market of hundreds of thousands of users of the metro and public transport in Montreal.
At their peak, at the turn of the 2010s, these two “free metro newspapers”, as they were called at the time, would have distributed a total of up to 150,000 copies per weekday, which would have reached nearly 350,000 readers per day.
Subsequently, the rise in popularity of digital media accessible on smart phones and the implementation of telephone coverage and wireless internet throughout the métro network diverted the interest of public transport users for printed newspapers, even distributed free of charge.
The coup de grace came three years ago, with the arrival of health restrictions which caused a marked and sudden drop in the use of public transport.
This is also what motivated Quebecor, in February 2021, to reduce the frequency of publication of the newspaper. 24 hours to a single print issue per week – Thursday – while refocusing its dissemination of information and reports on the 24heures.ca website.
This reprieve for the printed version of the 24 hours finally lasted two years, until the publication of its final issue on Thursday, March 23.
Meanwhile, in its recent 2022 year-end financial results, Quebecor had recorded operating income (adjusted EBITDA) in its Media segment down 48% annualized in the fourth quarter, and down 70% for the entire 2022 financial year compared to 2021.
As for the main competitor of 24 hoursthe newspaper Metrothe collapse of the print media market among public transport users led to a change of ownership in 2017, from the Transcontinental group to the Montreal company Métro Média.
Since then, Métro Média has consolidated its activities with the newspaper Metro – reduced to two issues per week – and about ten neighborhood newspapers in hybrid distribution: still on paper (weekly), but increasingly on the web and social networks.