SaltWire Network is ending the Monday print edition for four Atlantic Canada newspapers.
The Chronicle Herald in Halifax, The Cape Breton Post in Sydney, N.S., The Guardian in Charlottetown┬аand The Telegram in St. John’s will no longer have a Monday print edition.
The media company cites┬аincreasing inflation on print operations and rising fuel costs as some of the factors in the decision.
Chief operating officer Ian Scott said in a statement on Monday that┬аthe media company was “responding to the market demand for how and where people want to see their content.”
“We’ve had at least six [price] increases this year, whereas we would have seen two [increases] in the preceding two years,” Scott said of the price of paper┬аin an interview Tuesday.
“Our┬аaudience size is┬аvery significantly larger online than it is [for] the printed paper and┬аthe Monday [edition] is the smaller of the┬аprinted editions,” Scott added.
He said┬аthat the move will lower costs for the company, but will not affect┬аstaffing at the four newsrooms.
With the savings from the change, Scott said the company intends to put more efforts toward its digital platforms, with a focus on producing more┬аmultimedia pieces. In place of the print editions on Monday, the four publications will have an exact digital┬аreplica of the physical paper, which he said has the benefit of being more accessible, allowing readers to listen to stories out loud or translate them into other languages, among other options.┬а
SaltWire says the decision will take effect on Oct. 17,┬аbut there will not be a print publication on Thanksgiving Monday, as usual.
The move comes just weeks after fellow Canadian media company Postmedia┬аNetwork┬аannounced nine of its urban daily newspapers would no longer be printed and delivered on Mondays.┬а
That decision affected the Monday editions of┬аThe Vancouver Sun, The Province, Calgary Herald, Calgary Sun, Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Sun and Montreal Gazette.
