The shortage of street vendors is increasingly felt in Quebec. In towns and regions alike, many readers no longer receive their paper newspaper and end up canceling their subscription. A situation that gives the big media a hard time and precipitates the end of their printed editions.
André Bigras, 81, subscribes to Duty since the age of 14. He likes to receive his paper copy every day, not hesitating to annotate the pages and cut out the most significant articles to keep them. But for the past month, he had to reluctantly suspend his subscription, unable to receive his paper journal at his cottage near Namur, Outaouais, where he now spends most of his time.
“It’s too far. There is no street vendor in this area and no drop-off point to receive my newspaper. I would have had to go through Canada Post or buy it individually every day, but it’s three times more expensive,” he explains.
He still turned to a digital subscription to stay informed. But the experience is “disappointing”, he says. “I’m the first to criticize the fact that we are in front of our screens a lot, so reading my newspaper sitting in front of my computer is less appealing to me. I miss being able to read my Duty everywhere, even in my bath, ”he says, not excluding completely unsubscribing.
Like André Bigras, more and more readers still attached to their paper newspaper are being forced to draw a line under their subscription due to the shortage of street vendors in their sector. A situation that concerns several newspapers across the province and that does not only affect readers established in the regions.
Francis Boucher, who lives in the heart of the Villeray district in Montreal, was also affected by the lack of street vendors. No longer receiving his copy of Montreal Journal since January, he has canceled his subscription, refusing to go digital. “It may be categorical, but for me, it’s paper or nothing,” says the man in his forties. “It’s not the same reading as on the screen. Paper, we appropriate it, we twist it, we fold it, we tear it, we smell it. I feel like I get into the text more with a print version, I’m not distracted by anything else on my screen. It’s really a shame to lose this ritual. »
I am the first to criticize the fact that we are in front of our screens a lot, so reading my newspaper sitting in front of my computer is less appealing to me. I miss being able to read my Duty everywhere, even in my bath.
A growing problem
Over the past three years, between the pandemic, the general labor shortage and inflation, the lack of street vendors has increased and has become a real problem for several media.
At Duty, for example, nearly 10% of weekday paper subscribers no longer have home delivery, says the daily’s vice-president of development, Christianne Benjamin. Messaging Dynamiques — the company that distributes The duty, Ie Montreal Journal, Ie Quebec newspaper and several magazines — even had to abandon certain sectors for good. The distributor has nevertheless redoubled its efforts to recruit and retain vendors, with retention bonuses and bonuses on the quality of delivery, says Ms.me Benjamin.
It may be categorical, but for me it’s the paper or nothing. It is not the same reading as on the screen. Paper, we appropriate it, we twist it, we fold it, we tear it, we smell it. I feel like I get into the text more with a print version, I’m not distracted by anything else on my screen. It’s really a shame to lose this ritual.
It must be said that the working conditions are not very attractive, she concedes. Being a street vendor means working at night, from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m., in sometimes difficult weather conditions. In addition, street vendors do not receive an hourly wage, but rather a fixed amount per newspaper distributed. An amount “which has not necessarily kept pace with inflation, even if adjustments have taken place”.
“It discourages a lot of people. People today prefer to do Uber delivery, for example, to work during the day, according to their schedules, with more flexibility,” notes Christianne Benjamin.
The end of paper?
“We are really all in the same boat,” drops Bruno Savard, director of multimedia distribution for the Coops de l’information, including the six newspapers – The sun (Quebec), The right (Ottawa-Gatineau), Le Nouvelliste (Trois-Rivieres), The gallery (Sherbrooke), The Daily (Saguenay) and The Voice of the East (Granby) — each manage their own distribution system.
“We have no paper subscribers on break at the moment, but it’s also because the paper has become weekly. In 2020, when we were still a daily, it was difficult to find street vendors. We had to lengthen the trips, and the distribution was stretched over dinner time. It often happened that people unsubscribed because of the delay, ”he reports. A situation that persists even if the distribution is now only done on Saturdays.
According to Mr. Savard, the shortage of vendors, combined with the explosion in the cost of newsprint, has also accelerated the decision of the Coops de l’information to completely abandon their paper edition by the end of the year. .
At Duty, we assure that the current situation does not jeopardize the paper version of the daily. Christianne Benjamin recognizes, however, that this could become “a big issue” if the percentage of subscribers no longer having a delivery service reached 20%, for example.
It was not possible to ascertain the extent of the problem at Montreal Journal and at Quebec newspaper, Quebecor did not respond to our interview requests. But when the company announced in December that it was ending the Sunday paper edition of its two dailies, it cited the shortage of street vendors among the factors that influenced its decision.
“We can see it clearly, the media are cutting into the paper one after the other. For those who remain, the countdown is on. It’s really the end of an era, ”analyzes UQAM journalism professor Patrick White, who predicts the end of the paper in two to three years.