SaltWire to merge N.L. papers

Atlantic Canada’s biggest newspaper publisher is merging four of its weekly Newfoundland papers into a single publication.

The SaltWire Network announced Thursday that, as of Aug. 1, the Central Voice replaces The Pilot, The Advertiser, The Nor’wester and The Beacon in bringing the news to the residents of Central Newfoundland.

Instead of a paid-for paper, the Central Voice will be a free weekly publication delivered to 32,000 residents in the area.

“These were all very small subscriber-based publications,” said Ian Scott, the chief operating officer and executive vicepresident of SaltWire Network, which also owns The Guardian and Journal Pioneer in P.E.I. “Now we will have a much larger footprint that makes them a viable market for advertising.”

On Thursday SaltWire, parent company of The Chronicle Herald, also announced that it was transforming another one of its Newfoundland papers from a paid-subscription to free publication.

Starting immediately, The Compass will be delivered to 12,000 homes in the Conception Bay North area each week.

It’s a strategy that SaltWire has already used in Nova Scotia.

Earlier this year it announced that it was merging the Amherst News and The Citizen Record into a single free community publication to be delivered to all residents of Cumberland County.

As well, The Truro Daily News and The News in New Glasgow shifted from paid-for daily publications to paid-for weekly newspapers, with the Truro Daily News becoming the Truro News.

SaltWire also consolidated The Queens County Advance with the South Shore Breaker to create a single community newspaper for the South Shore.

Those changes were effective July 1.

“Basically, we’re doing the same thing in Newfoundland as we did in Nova Scotia: aligning our products around communities and making advertisingfocused vehicles where it makes economic sense,” said Scott, who added that this is expected to be the last consolidation of this type for the company.

In May, the company also took over printing its P.E.I. newspapers at its Bluewater printing plant in Halifax from the Transcontinental-owned plant in Borden-Carleton.

In Newfoundland, five people will lose their jobs because of the changes coming in August. Most of those, Scott said, will be on the circulation and clerical side.

Operations for both The Compass and The Central Voice will be managed out of the St. John’s offices of the SaltWire-owned Telegram. Decision follows recent similar move involving Nova Scotia newspapers