Postmedia Canada Adopts Printless Mondays and other Pre-Mortem Newspaper News
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Postmedia Network Inc. says nine of its urban daily newspapers will no longer be printed and delivered on Mondays effective Oct. 17.
Postmedia spokesperson Phyllise Gelfand says the Vancouver Sun, The Province, Calgary Herald, Calgary Sun, Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Sun and Montreal Gazette will all be affected.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has the story.
She says the ePaper versions of the affected newspapers — a digital replica of the print edition — will still be published on Mondays and the respective websites will still be updated with stories and news content.
Postmedia has a “robust digital offering” and is focused on “going where [its] readers are,” she said.
There are no jobs cuts tied to this move by the company, she added.
Postmedia has over a hundred newspapers in Canada, the vast majority being small town papers. I don’t know how many of those are on a less-than-daily schedule, I would guess most. But this leaves some major cities without fresh newspapers for two days in a row (Postmedia seems to continue the Canadian practice of no Sunday editions).
My understanding is newspapers pay for daily comic strips a week at a time so it doesn’t affect cartoonists’ income, only exposure. And a quick check shows that these big city Postmedia papers seldom run opinion pages on Mondays so not much effect on the political cartoonists. It appears only The Edmonton Journal and The Montreal Gazette have regular cartoonists, though The Vancouver Sun avails itself to Harrop cartoons regularly.
hat tip to Bado’s Blog
art © Clément Suavé
Where Have All the Good Times Gone?
Earlier this month, Gannett’s Michael Reed had an opportunity to set a new course for the nation’s biggest newspaper company after disappointing financial results in August.
Instead, he doubled down.
Reed doubled down on cost-cutting, promising to cut $200 million to $240 million from “declining parts” of the business – primarily print.
Greg Burns, at Local News Initiative, checks in with Gannett.
The big risk is that Gannett keeps doing what it did in the second quarter: The decline in print accelerates, while revenues from digital businesses fail to compensate.
Still…
Douglas Arthur of Huber Research predicts digital will account for 42% of total revenues in 2024, up from a little over one-third today.
But that may be more attributable to falling (failing?) print ads than rising net income.
All is not bleak. Gannett has a stable commercial printing and distribution arm, for instance, and its paid obituaries and legal notices continue to perform well, Reed said.
The brightest spot is Gannett’s Digital Marketing Solutions unit, which helps businesses such as plumbers, dentists and restaurateurs increase their local digital presence, maximize their advertising reach and convert leads into paying customers. It’s growing and profitable, and Reed said it could be worth as much as $2 billion if it were a standalone company.
hat tip to Poynter
Comics Return to The New York Times
© MassMutual
Granted it took a Massachusetts Mutual corporate double truck ad, but the Sunday New York Times edition of September 25, 2022 had a dozen cartoon panels.
And now you know as much as we do. Cartoonist/illustrator? Gag Lines?
We await further information.
hat tip to Mike Rhode
Michael Cavna on your local newspaper.
© Michael Cavna
hat tip to Clay Bennett
© Clay Bennett/Chattanooga Times Free Press
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