SaltWire E-Edition

Saltwire Network ceases printing Monday papers for daily publications

No change to newsroom staffing levels; digital editions will be produced each Monday for local markets

Saltwire Network will cease publishing print newspapers on Mondays.

The Atlantic Canadian media company announced the move in a news release issued Monday, Oct. 3. Four daily news publications are impacted — The Chronicle Herald in Halifax, The Cape Breton Post in Sydney, N.S., The Guardian in Charlottetown, P.E.I., and The Telegram in St. John’s.

The announcement takes effect on Oct. 17, but as in the past, there will be no print publication on Thanksgiving Monday, Oct. 10.

Saltwire chief operating officer Ian Scott cited multiple factors in the company’s decision to make the change, including inflation impacting print operations and the rising fuel costs that have impacted transportation and delivery.

“We’re responding to the market demand for how and where people want to see their content,” Scott said, adding Monday print editions had the lowest circulation and generated the least amount of advertising revenue.

While the move will decrease expenses for the company, Scott said it will not affect newsroom staffing levels at the four publications.

“If anything,” he said, “this will permit us to focus more on the content, per se, and less on the most expensive channel for distribution that we have, which is, of course, print and physical distribution.”

While readers accustomed to holding a physical Monday newspaper in their hands will no longer be able to do so, the four publications will continue to produce digital editions on Mondays featuring local stories, opinion pieces and other content.

Saltwire also plans to expand the weekend edition for its daily papers. Scott characterized this as a way to extend the shelf life of those papers.

“What we’re looking to do is to expand the Saturday (paper) with some added puzzles and comic strips and things of that nature, so the reader who chooses either to buy it on a Saturday, Sunday or Monday will have an opportunity to pick it up and have something more than just today’s standard weekend edition.”

Saltwire will continue to offer unlimited digital access to members through Saltwire.com and mobile apps.

“Our mission is to provoke thought and action — to improve communities across Atlantic Canada,” said Scott.

“We’re continuing to do that. We’re simply taking one of those very expensive channels and turning it into a focus on the content, which is our core product. … Our core content is our journalism. That’s what we’re focused on.”

According to a Canada Heritage background document on the federal government’s Online News Act released in April 2022, 450 news outlets closed in the country from 2008 to 2021. Consumers of news have largely shifted over that time from print media to online, with the same document reporting 78 per cent of Canadians now access news online.

This is the first change to print publishing days for The Telegram since September 2008, when it ceased producing the Sunday edition of the paper. The Chronicle Herald stopped publishing a physical Sunday newspaper in April 2013.

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2022-10-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-10-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://saltwire.pressreader.com/article/281526524942889

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