The Chronicle Herald in Halifax, the Cape Breton Post in Sydney, the NS, the Guardian in Charlottetown and the Telegram in St. John’s will no longer have a print edition on Mondays. The media company cites rising print inflation and rising fuel costs as some of the factors behind the decision. Chief executive Ian Scott said in a statement on Monday that the media company is “responding to market demand for how and where people want to see their content”. “We had at least six [price] increases this year, while we would see two [increases] the previous two years,” Scott said of the paper’s price in an interview Tuesday. “Our audience size is much bigger online than it is [for] the printed paper on Monday as well [edition] it’s the smallest of the print editions,” Scott added. He said the move would reduce costs for the company but would not affect staff at the four newsrooms. With the savings from the switch, Scott said the company plans to put more effort into its digital platforms, with an emphasis on producing more media pieces. In place of print editions on Monday, the four editions will have an exact digital copy of the physical paper, which he said has the advantage of being more accessible, allowing readers to hear stories aloud or translate them into other languages. among other options. SaltWire says the decision will go into effect on October 17, but there won’t be a print publication on Thanksgiving Monday, as usual. The move comes just weeks after fellow Canadian media company Postmedia Network announced that nine of its urban dailies would no longer be printed and delivered on Mondays. That decision affected the Monday editions of The Vancouver Sun, The Province, Calgary Herald, Calgary Sun, Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Sun and Montreal Gazette.
The decisions are in line with a 20-year trend
It’s not surprising that SaltWire would make the move, said David Swick, a journalism professor at the University of King’s College, since about 80 percent of Canadians get their news online instead of in print. “This trend has been going on for 20 years,” Swick said in an interview Tuesday. “We are in a digital revolution and print is the one taking it by the throat. That’s really sad for people who love to spread the paper in front of them, and I’m one of those people, but it’s not surprising in any way.” He said circulation has long been down on Mondays for the print editions, as well as the number of ads running in the paper. He expects more publications to make the same decision in the coming months and years.
