La Presse to cease weekday newspaper
Montreal outlet to focus on tablet, web properties, but will keep Saturday edition
Montreal La Presse says it will end the weekday printing of its daily newspaper in the new year, nearly three years after introducing its free digital tablet edition.
The print edition of the Frenchlanguage paper will only be available on Saturdays after Jan.1, the newspaper said Wednesday.
La Presse president and publisher Guy Crevier says that 30 months after the launch of La Presse Plus, the digital edition is more successful than the 131-year-old print edition.
He says more than 460,000 people read the digital paper weekly. Crevier says it’s also a big success with advertisers. La Presse is owned by Power Corp. The decision to end the weekday paper comes a day after the Toronto Star launched its own free digital tab- let with the help of La Presse. Toronto Star publisher John Cruickshank said the Star has “a very different strategy from La Presse. We still have a very vibrant print product with a large, deeply engaged audience. We’re moving toward a multiplatform strategy with print, tablet and browser, thestar.com, available on the desktop, laptop and mobile phones,” he said in an interview. The two newspapers also announced Wednesday that Olive Media, a digital marketing solutions provider owned by them, will cease stand-alone operations starting in January.
The newspapers will assume re- sponsibility for all digital advertising sales for their websites. The move will affect about 70 staffers in Toronto and 12 employees in Montreal, though some staff will be absorbed by Star Metro Media and La Presse.
“This is an important step forward in our business strategy,” Cruickshank, who is also president of Star Media Group, said in a news release.
“It means we will be able to continue to provide the same excellent service to our advertisers and allow them to purchase media across all Star Media Group brands and platforms from a single, dedicated sales force.” With files from Star staff