After Montreal, Transcontinental ends the distribution of Publisac throughout Quebec. The Toronto and Hamilton regions in Ontario, as well as the suburbs of Vancouver in British Columbia, are also affected, a hard blow for regional newspapers which were counting on this vehicle to reach their readers.
Transcontinental will instead use the services of Canada Post to distribute Raddar, its advertising leaflets first launched in Montreal, replacing Publisac.
According to the printer’s management, between February and May 2024, “2.8 million households will be added to the million copies of Raddar which is already distributed [depuis mai dernier] in the greater Montreal area.
As for the impact on local newspapers of this disappearance of Publisac distributed door to door, Transcontinental management says it “regrets the repercussions of the end of Publisac on several weekly newspapers”.
“Broken” business model
For the president of the board of directors of Hebdos Québec Benoit Chartier, who represents 115 local weekly newspapers spread across 16 regions of the province, it is a hard blow.
“Our business model is broken,” says Benoit Chartier in an interview. It’s another ordeal on top of all the others we experience in the media. The irony of the story is that we are victims of a municipal regulation from Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante. »
Mr. Chartier explains that his members must completely review their distribution network in place for more than forty years. Two options are on the table, he maintains. On the one hand, distribution by post, which costs, according to his calculations, four times the price of the agreement with Publisac. On the other, distribution to popular drop-off points (stores, restaurants, pharmacies, senior centers, business centers, etc.).
“But it’s no longer the same distribution,” he explains. It is the reader who is restricted, it is the information which is less disseminated. »
The president of Icimedias, Renel Bouchard, who owns 23 print and web newspapers, believes that the business model with distribution by drop-off points is viable in the long term even if it does not yet exist in Quebec. He cites the example of Burlington in the United States, where 30,000 copies of the local newspaper are distributed per week.
“The problem we currently have with Transcontinental’s decision is that it is too fast to allow us to make this shift,” he maintains in an interview.
In addition to drop-off points, Renel Bouchard is considering dynamic messaging and distribution directly by its employees in smaller regions.
In the Montreal region, the replacement of the door-to-door Publisac by the Raddar leaflets distributed by Canada Post is considered one of the main causes of the atrophy and closure of many local and neighborhood newspapers for a year.
According to Patrick Brayley, senior vice-president at TC Imprimeries Transcontinental, “the Publisac model had to evolve given recent and planned regulatory changes in distribution and their repercussions on the operational and financial levels. »
To avoid regulatory issues
Furthermore, claiming to be a “long-time partner of local newspapers”, the management of TC Transcontinental assures that it “will help promote their presence in their communities as well as their digital sites, by offering them a free page in Raddar and visibility on [le portail web] raddar.ca. »
In the opinion of analyst Adam Shine, at National Bank Financial, Transcontinental’s decision to put an end to door-to-door Publisac and to increase the distribution of Raddar by Canada Post is part of the desire to the printer to strengthen the profitability of its advertising book activities, while circumventing the regulatory restrictions on the distribution of advertising materials which are spreading in several cities and towns.
“By expanding Raddar’s distribution, Transcontinental should avoid further regulatory issues related to its flyer distribution activities,” Adam Shine said in a note to his client-investors.
“Additionally, because the Raddar leaflet is distributed by Canada Post, it actually reaches more households than Transcontinental previously did with its Publisac, while being little or not affected by municipal efforts to reduce the distribution of documents printed. »