Canadian Jewish News folds as ads crash

The Canadian Jewish News has served Canada’s Jewish community for 60 years, but it could not survive the economic downturn brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

National Post has learned that the CJN will cease its print and web operations after publishing its April 9 edition. Its president, Elizabeth Wolfe, said an official announcement will be made on its website before that time.

“It was a very difficult decision to make,” said Wolfe. “The CJN had faced all of the challenges of the industry in the last several years due to the decline of advertising in print media. We had experienced losses but had hoped to find ways to continue to operate. The coronavirus pandemic significantly impacted our revenues.

“While we have always viewed ourselves as an essential service to the Canadian Jewish community and our readers, our first priority is to our employees, many of whom have been with the CJN for many years. We felt it was important to protect any severance we could provide to them, rather than to continue to incur losses that we could not recoup. It is very unfortunate that we will no longer be able to inform and support our community during this crisis.”

The newspaper’s staff was informed of the decision over a videoconference call on April 2. Bernie Farber, former CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress and a columnist at the CJN since 2013, said the loss of the paper will have a profound impact on the Jewish community.

“I think it was the paper of record to the Jewish community and I’m heartbroken to see it folding at this time,” he said. “There is no other paper. This was it. So, along with everything else that’s going on right now, this just adds another level of sadness.”

The CJN printed its inaugural edition on Jan. 1, 1960. While it started out catering to the Toronto market, in 1976, it opened a dedicated Montreal bureau and began printing separate editions for Canada’s two largest cities.

In recent years, it has maintained a network of freelance reporters across the country and has been delivered to Canadians from coast to coast via Canada Post, as well as online. As of September 2019, the weekly publication had a total circulation of 31,752 copies.

“It went from shore to shore and there are Jews literally from east to west. This is a newspaper that brought us all together,” said Farber.

In an editorial in its inaugural edition, its first publisher, Dorothy Cohn Nurenberger, and editor Meyer Joshua Nurenberger promised that the paper would have “no allegiance to any group or party,” and would “fight for the preservation of Sinai culture ... It will fight in the Maccabean spirit — expressing the Jewish refusal to surrender.”

That refusal to surrender was put to the test in 2013, when the paper’s president at the time, Donald Carr, announced that it would stop publishing and laid off its 50 or so staff members. However, after a groundswell of support from readers, including many who wrote letters to the editor to National Post, its board decided to undertake a major restructuring and relaunch. It hired a new editor, Yoni Goldstein, redesigned its print edition and hired back some of its workforce, though it was drastically reduced.

Farber said he has hope that it will eventually return in some form. “I do believe that it will rise again,” he said. “I think that once this particular crisis is over and we’re able to take a deep breath I think we will see this newspaper rise.”