Métro Média fears a “possible disappearance” of the local press on the island of Montreal, in the saga surrounding the entry into force of the municipal by-law restricting the generalized door-to-door distribution of the Publisac as of May 17.
The company, owner of the newspaper Metro and about 20 local newspapers, says major cuts “in our newsroom of more than 40 employees” are likely to occur.
In an interview on Monday, the president and CEO of Métro Média, Andrew Mulé, said that, seeing the end of the Publisac coming to the island of Montreal, the company had begun a transition from the paper newspaper to the digital one, but on a three-year horizon.
But she didn’t have time to fully roll out her plan before the financial repercussions hit.
“Publisac no longer includes local newspapers. They are changing their format,” Mulé explained.
“In our case, with the shutdown of the Publisac, nearly 75 to 80% of our income disappears from one month to the next,” underlines Mr. Mulé.
However, these newspapers provide local information that they are often the only ones to cover. They inform citizens about the decisions and debates within the boroughs and about life in the neighborhoods of Montreal.
“The impact, it is major for society and democracy”, judges Mr. Mulé.
Last fall, the Plante administration announced one-time aid of $2 million for these newspapers, or $85,000 each.
Commit to the long term
Today, Mr. Mulé would like the City of Montreal to make a longer-term commitment to local information, “because it’s very expensive to make a digital shift” and it takes some time.
“This commitment, yes, it should be permanent, because our role is very democratic”, opined Mr. Mulé.
Also, he wants the City to use “local media platforms as an important source of communication with the public”, in order to encourage consultation of these local newspapers.
He deplores the fact that the recommendations of an advisory committee on this subject have hardly been followed. This proposed, for example, to publish public notices and calls for tenders in these local newspapers.
Invited to make its point of view known, Mayor Plante’s office had not yet commented at the time of writing these lines.