It is the end for the six regional daily newspapers of the Coops de l’information (CN2i), which will cut a hundred jobs or about a third of their workforce this year.

The newspapers “Le Droit”, “Le Soleil”, “La Tribune”, “Le Nouvelliste”, “La Voix de l’Est” and “Le Quotidien”, which previously had a paper edition on Saturdays, will no longer be printed at the end of the year, the company confirmed its various publications in a text published on the website.

In the process, around 350 employees were able to cut a hundred jobs. The cooperative hopes that voluntary resignations will avoid redundancies. However, paper-related employees are affected.

On the union side, management has not yet come up with a concrete plan, but there is a way to find the best way to ensure the sustainability of CN2i with the least negative impact on workers, replies the President of the National Confederation of Communications and Culture des CSN, Annick Charette, in an interview. “The atmosphere is not confrontational.”

The job cuts have already begun indirectly since the cooperative recently ordered a hiring freeze, adds Annick Charette.

Management was unable to react immediately. The general director of the Coops de l’Information, Geneviève Rossier, told the “Journal de Montréal” that a program of voluntary resignations would be introduced from June. Geneviève Rossier, who arrived in March, previously ran The Canadian Press’s French service.

Response of the FPJQ

The Quebec Journalists’ Association (FPJQ) notes that this decision marks a pivotal moment in the history of journalism in Quebec.

“It’s not just the end of the Saturday edition. It is the end of all papers, a tradition at Le Soleil that goes back more than 125 years. It is also the end of a particular business model that has been undergoing transformation for a number of years,” said Alexandre Duval, president of the FPJQ Quebec section, in a press release published in the evening.

He adds that the upheavals in the news media in general over the last few years show that the issue of advertising revenue has not yet been resolved.

“As in most countries, the print versions of the media are gradually disappearing in order to reduce media distribution costs. Although this is the application of a decision that has been planned for some time and is duly executed by CN2i, it shows the urgency to proceed with Bill C-18 to restore financial balance,” adds FPJQ President Michaël Nguyen.

“For too long, the earnings of the press companies here were sucked by the American technology giants, which led to irreparable damage in some cases,” emphasizes Michaël Nguyen.

A difficult context for paper

CN2i’s six daily newspapers will thus be broadcast entirely on digital platforms. The cooperative is also planning a new web interface for its website and new applications.

Publishers had already started to partially move away from paper when they stopped their Monday-to-Friday print editions in March 2020.

For printed newspapers, the context is difficult. Printing costs are coming under inflationary pressure while some of their advertising revenue has migrated to web giants like Facebook and Google.

Last December, the Journal de Québec and the Journal de Montréal announced that they would stop printing their Sunday editions from early 2023. In October, Postmedia stopped printing the Monday edition of nine of its publications, including the Montreal Gazette.