'An atomic bomb for local news': Metro Media shuts down all publications

The abrupt closure of the Métro Média group, which includes more than twenty hyperlocal publications in Montreal and Quebec City, is a real "atom bomb" for local news, according to several observers of the Quebec media landscape.

Shortly after 4:30 p.m. on Friday, the company's president and CEO, Andrew Mulé, announced to his employees, colleagues and collaborators "the immediate suspension of operations of Métro, all (its) newspapers and (its) community websites."

"Time was my worst enemy, and what I feared has unfortunately happened, albeit abruptly and suddenly," lamented the publisher, who says he was informed on Wednesday that the company no longer had the necessary liquidity to continue operations, despite a "healthy balance sheet."

According to Jean-Hugues Roy, professor at UQAM's École des médias, the shuttering of Métro Média's publications is both "sad and expected."

"It's even tragic ... It's an atomic bomb for local news in Montreal and Quebec City," he said in an interview.

"It's a piece of journalistic history, but also of certain neighbourhoods, that's disappearing. Le Messager de Verdun celebrates its 110th anniversary this year ... These are communities that rely on these newspapers as sources of information."

A person holds a phone displaying the home page of Metro Media, which reads in French that the company is suspending activities, in Toronto, Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Giordano Ciampini

His colleague Patrick White agreed, even indicating that the province's two largest cities will face media deserts.

"This is very, very bad news for local democracy," he said in a telephone interview. "It's the end of the hyperlocal coverage model in Montreal and Quebec City. We're going to stop covering borough councils."

"It's not good news for society in general if we lose several voices covering the news," added Éric-Pierre Champagne, vice-president of the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec. "When information doesn't come out on top, it's the public that loses out."

He noted that the group's weeklies covered a certain "blind spot" in the major Montreal dailies.

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Annick Charette, president of the Fédération nationale de la culture et des communications (FNCC-CSN), described the announcement as "catastrophic," even though she had been working closely with Mulé for several months to get the company out of its difficulties.

"It creates a big, big hole. For many communities, their weekly newspaper was a very important communication vehicle," stressed Charette. "For many people, it was the only French-language news or publications that came into their homes."

"We worked hard with the owners, we tried to find alternative solutions, we had meetings with several investors, the city ... I hope that this closure will only be temporary," added Charette, who, last May, had feared in a press release "the pure and simple disappearance of this local press" if no aid measures were brought to the company.

In a press release issued late Friday evening, the FNCC-CSN called for "immediate and constructive intervention" from all levels of government to save local news on the Island of Montreal.

Métro Média was created in April 2018 at the time of the acquisition of the daily Métro as well as 11 metropolitan publications and five publications from Quebec City region. Some of these publications were close to 100 years old.

According to statistics on the company's website, the Métro newspaper reached 100,000 readers weekly. Its website had 1.9 million unique visitors every month and a total of 165,000 copies of all weeklies were distributed each month.

The company employed around 100 people, more than half of whom were unionized.

A few layoffs had taken place last winter and in recent weeks.

Reached via social media, Mulé declined an interview request from The Canadian Press, saying he had said it all in his message.

"This is very bad news for citizens. Access to local sources of information is important. The Ministère de la Culture et des Communications will continue to support local newspapers, as it has done for several years," reacted the Minister of Culture and Communications, Mathieu Lacombe, a former journalist.

FINGER POINTED AT THE END OF PUBLISAC

The businessman pointed out that despite "a major and significant digital shift ... Métro was dealt a particularly devastating blow when the Mayor of Montreal announced the end of our distribution method, the Publisac."

"(We) couldn't suffer a devastating loss of revenue suddenly and follow an ambitious and expensive digital roadmap without external financial help. We are, after all, a small company without funding, and the premature end of our print media meant that we had no way of quickly financing our future without a major investment," wrote Mulé, adding that he has "spent the past year knocking on every door in Quebec and Canada" for help.

Last spring, Mulé had threatened to lay off half of his employees without financial support from Montreal due to the suspension of distribution of his newspapers through the Publisac.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante expressed her sadness about the closure of the media outlet. Calling it "a major loss for the media ecosystem and the daily lives of Montrealers," the mayor did not respond to Mulé's criticism of his decision to end Publisac distribution.

"The radical transformation of the media business environment calls for urgent reflection and collective solutions," Plante said, praising the work of the Métro Média group.

This comment seems to have stung Andrew Mulé to the core, as he retorted that "the beauty of communicating on social media [is the] total control of the message upon publication without the need for independent fact-checking. Good luck with that Montreal."

A BUSINESS MODEL TO REVIEW

However, Jean-Hugues Roy is not surprised by the setbacks of Métro Média, which had been trying for several months to survive, notably by attempting to transform itself into a cooperative.

"The Publisac argument, when you consider that a judgment was handed down just over a month ago, shows above all that the information business model, which is dependent on advertising, no longer works," he says. "Advertising can no longer be the sole or main source of revenue to finance news."

"It's an old business model that we tried to modernize with a digital shift," White said. "We knew it wasn't easy and that stopping newspaper distribution hurt a lot."

Roy fears that other media, still dependent on this business model, will follow Métro Média's footsteps in the coming months.

"A lot of newspapers, including in the regions, are still distributed by Publisac. We have one voice that's dying out, but several others could."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Aug. 11, 2023.