Three Metroland community papers, the Scarborough Mirror, North York Mirror and Etobicoke Guardian, quietly published their final Tuesday edition last week, moving from a twice-weekly publishing schedule to a weekly. Each paper will now publish only on Thursdays.
All three papers have long histories in Toronto, with the Guardian dating back to 1917, the North York Mirror to 1957 and the Scarborough Mirror to 1962. The papers were published on Thursdays and Fridays until last spring, when the Friday edition was converted to Tuesday.
Marg Middleton, general manager of Metroland Media Toronto – which consists of nine free community weeklies including the Parkdale Villager, York Guardian and East York Mirror – said the decision was driven by advertiser demand.
“We just found that advertisers really wanted to be in our Thursday publication. It’s our bigger publication, it has all our flyers in it, so that’s what they gravitated towards,” she said.
There were no staff reductions as a result of the change, said Middleton, but employees are now deployed differently. “We want to put a lot of emphasis on online; we’ve been doing it all year, but this gives us the opportunity to put even more time into that.”
Metroland is also increasing circulation for the Toronto group by approximately 32,000, pushing total circulation for the group to 512,000. It is also installing 200 new boxes and racks throughout the city in groups of 50.
Middleton expects Metroland to hang on to “most” of the advertising revenue, with advertisers moving into the Thursday paper. “There will always be revenue loss, but it’s really hard to anticipate what it’s going to be,” she said. Ad revenue losses will be partially offset by reduced print costs, she said.
While there’s been endless speculation on print’s continued viability, Middleton called community newspapers the “sweet spot” for the industry. “Our page counts are pretty consistent and our advertisers are very supportive,” she said. “We’re absolutely in the right niche for newspapers right now.”
