A TC Transcontinental sign is pictured at the company's annual general meeting in Montreal on March 11, 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
MONTREAL – The owner of Quebec’s main flyer distributor says it is ending a 45-year-old service, forcing more than 50 beleaguered local newspapers to rethink their strategy as well.
The Montreal-based packaging and printing company TC Transcontinental says that starting in May it will scrap the flyer bundles – known in Quebec as Publisac – currently distributed to well over two million households outside Montreal as part of a shift to a thin leaflet delivered by Canada Post.
Weekly newspapers across the province have depended on the door-to-door Publisac service to bring local news to Quebecers’ doorsteps, packaged in a plastic bag alongside grocery store flyers.
Renel Bouchard, president of Icimédias which owns more than 20 print and web-based papers across the province, says it now aims to overhaul its distribution plan by delivering editions to select drop-off points – such as local businesses and nursing homes – rather than houses.
Publisac suffered a major blow in May after Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante said flyers would be delivered only to residents who request them, representing a win for environmentalists and prompting criticism from TC Transcontinental.
The move also became the last straw for Métro Média, which declared bankruptcy in September, permanently ending hyperlocal coverage by its more than 30 publications in the province’s two largest cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2023.
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