Globe to scrap print in Atlantic Canada
Last copies in Maritimes go out Nov. 30
• The Globe and Mail will stop distributing print newspapers in Atlantic Canada as of Nov. 30, citing the high cost of subsidizing paper delivery for a dwindling number of print subscribers as more people consume news online.
The last hard copies of the national newspaper will be delivered in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island on Nov. 30, publisher and CEO Phillip Crawley announced Monday.
The move comes f our years after the Globe, owned by the Thomson family’s investment firm Woodbridge Company Ltd., s t opped delivering papers in Newfoundland and Labrador.
In an interview, Crawley said the Globe expects to save about $ 1 million per year from cancelling the delivery route that served about 5,000 weekday copies and 10,000 weekend papers across the region.
“The numbers were getting too small to make it worthwhile f or us to be sending papers over very long distances out of the Transcontinental pri nt plant in Halifax,” Crawley said.
“Then it becomes, well, is this really a good way to be spending the money, to be subsidizing a delivery system and the cost of printing when there are increasingly popular digital means of access.”
Crawley said the decision won’t affect staffing or coverage in the Maritimes, where the paper has a Halifaxbased correspondent.
The decision was driven by consumption habits as more people switch to read the paper digitally, Crawley said, adding that two- thirds of the paper’s print subscribers already access content online.
While the daily newspaper still has loyal print subscribers and expects to for “years to come,” Crawley said delivery makes more sense from a cost perspective in large urban areas where people are concentrated.
In some parts of rural Ontario, it costs $14 to deliver a single copy to a small community with a handful of subscribers, he added.
“We’ve never said we would deliver to every town and village and city in the country… it’s based on demand.
“And if the demand changes to digital, well, we’re going to focus on making sure they get a very good digital experience,” he said.
Newspapers across Canada are grappling with the digital shift that has upended their business models.
Torstar Corp. and Postmedia Network Inc., owner of the Financial Post, have also made cuts and reported losses as digital advertising revenue fails to make up for the declines in legacy print ad revenue.