West-end community newspaper folds due to declining ad revenue
The Free Press, a popular community newspaper that covered local politics and gave west-end residents a forum to debate important neighbourhood issues, has published its last issue.
The free newspaper, which served Notre-Dame-de- Grâce, Hampstead and Côte-St-Luc, had been struggling with declining advertising revenue. Publisher David Price told the Montreal Gazette the newspaper was not covering its costs so he chose to close it.
In a heartfelt message to loyal readers, Price said he did his best to get potential advertisers, but couldn’t persuade enough of them.
“I can honestly say we tried, but in the end we failed to make our case to enough potential advertisers, who generally preferred to do nothing, or use flyers, or investigate the mysteries of cyberspace, than advertise with us,” Price told readers. “Put another way, they didn’t believe us when we said that you, the readers, were out there.”
Peter McQueen, a city councillor from N.D.G., said the Free Press will be sorely missed.
“It was the place to go for local politics and had a good letters to the editor (section),” McQueen said.
The newspaper’s chief reporter, Isaac Olson, called McQueen Tuesday with the bad news.
Olson told the Montreal Gazette community journalism is extremely important.
“It’s always a sad day when a community newspaper closes its door,” he said. “I will miss working in N.D.G. and Côte-St-Luc.”
Like many newspapers, the Free Press has been hurt by a drop in advertising. The Quebec government is considering allowing municipalities to place legally mandated public notices online instead of in newspapers, further reducing newspaper revenues.
This week, a coalition of newspapers warned a National Assembly committee that the disappearance of the notices in newspapers “would lead to the loss of at least 100 quality jobs and the closure of many papers.”
The Free Press began publishing in 2009 after the closing of The Monitor, a west-end newspaper that published for decades. Price said he will continue to publish The Westmount Independent.