(Toronto) Metroland Media Group has announced plans to discontinue print editions of its community newspapers and exit the flyer business, as it seeks protection under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act to put put in place a restructuring plan.
The move will result in the loss of 605 jobs, or approximately 60% of the company’s total workforce.
Metroland explained that the decision was the result of unsustainable financial losses resulting from changing consumer and advertiser preferences.
“The media industry continues to face existential challenges, in large part because digital technology giants have used their dominant position to capture the vast majority of advertising revenues in Canada,” said the company in a declaration.
“The decline of the print and flyer distribution industry has been significantly accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the reduction in the use of flyers by readers and advertisers as a marketing vehicle. »
As part of the restructuring plan, Metroland’s community publications will move to a digital-only model.
In the meantime, the company’s six daily newspapers, including the Hamilton Spectator, the Peterborough Examiner, the St. Catharines Standard, the Niagara Falls Review, the Welland Tribune and the Waterloo Region Record, will continue to appear in print and online .
Metroland is owned by NordStar Capital, which also owns the Toronto Star daily newspaper. The Star is not part of the restructuring.
These changes follow the breakdown of negotiations earlier this year between NordStar and Postmedia regarding a possible merger.
The two companies were in talks regarding a possible deal that would have seen Postmedia and Metroland Media Group join forces, while the Toronto Star would have been run by a new company.
Media outlets have been under pressure for years as online giants like Google and Meta, which owns Facebook, have taken over the advertising market.
Earlier this year, Ottawa passed the Online News Act, which will force digital giants to pay media outlets for content they share or reuse on their platforms.
Meta and Google responded to the law by announcing that they would block content from Canadian news publishers from their services before the law took effect.