Newspaper scrapping its Atlantic Canada print edition

TORONTO (CP) — The Globe and Mail is putting a stop to its daily print edition across Atlantic Canada later this year.

Publisher Phillip Crawley said the national newspaper plans to halt production for the East Coast on Nov. 30.

Costs of printing and distribution in the region are “unaffordable” because more readers are going online for news, he said. The money saved will be redirected to its journalism efforts.

It’s not the first time the Globe has pulled back in the Maritimes. The company stopped distribution of the newspaper in Newfoundland five years ago.

“We’ve watched the number of copies being printed declining,” Crawley said in an interview.

“It reaches a point where effectively we’re subsidizing the print delivery by a million dollars a year. My priority is to invest in high-quality journalism.”

While the changes won’t lead to layoffs at the Globe, Crawley noted the company’s newspapers are printed through an agreement with publisher Transcontinental.

He also rebuffed suggestions that ending the Atlantic print edition is a sign the Globe doesn’t see a future for physical newspapers.

“This is not in any way saying print is dying, we believe print’s got a lot of value for us for years to come,” he added.

“There’s print advertising, there’s print subscriptions. It’s still a big chunk of our revenue base.”