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January 5, 2020 2:21 pm  #1


Toronto Star: The Incredibly Shrinking Paper

The Star announced in its Saturday edition yet another cost cutting move. From now on, its Monday and Tuesday editions (and so far only those two, but it could potentially expand to other days in the future) will be cut down to just two sections. 

Section A will be slightly bigger than before with 24 pages of national, international and local news, as well as editorials and opinion pieces. It will also absorb the Entertainment and Life offerings. Section B will incorporate Sports, Business and obits. 

And that's all there will be on those two days.
 
While the paper insists it's actually expanding section A slightly, it doesn't try to hide the reasons for the move. "We are making these changes in part to contain costs as a result of lower advertising revenue..." it explains in a "Note To Readers" in its Saturday edition. 

I guess if the Toronto Sun once referred to itself as "The Little Paper That Grew," then the Star could well be "The Big Paper That Shrank." Either way, not a positive sign for the biggest publication of its kind on Canada and it's another sign of the woes plaguing the newspaper industry.  

 

January 5, 2020 6:41 pm  #2


Re: Toronto Star: The Incredibly Shrinking Paper

The newspaper industry is dead. The government has to stop giving the newspaper industry handouts, they can’t sustain themselves, and who actually reads the paper anymore? If these papers were smart, they would move to exclusively online, no paper offerings. 

 

January 5, 2020 7:00 pm  #3


Re: Toronto Star: The Incredibly Shrinking Paper

Print journalism has 10 years to go, predicted the New York Times CEO in 2018.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/12/print-journalism-may-last-another-10-years-new-york-times-ceo.html


"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram
 

January 5, 2020 7:06 pm  #4


Re: Toronto Star: The Incredibly Shrinking Paper

I find it incredibly sad. And worrisome. Who else will have the time, money, talent and inclination to dig deep? 

 

January 5, 2020 7:20 pm  #5


Re: Toronto Star: The Incredibly Shrinking Paper

Actually newspapers have more readers now than ever before, only much of that is online and the paper owners have been trying to find ways to monetize it. Doesn't help that social media giants like Google and Facebook are sucking most of the advertising without spending a nickle on local news gathering.

 

January 5, 2020 8:18 pm  #6


Re: Toronto Star: The Incredibly Shrinking Paper

Broodcaster wrote:

Actually newspapers have more readers now than ever before, only much of that is online and the paper owners have been trying to find ways to monetize it. Doesn't help that social media giants like Google and Facebook are sucking most of the advertising without spending a nickle on local news gathering.

Bang on Broodcaster. Google and Facebook and others have had a free ride from newspapers for years, using the content and not paying for anything.   The newspaper industry is far from dead but as you say monetizing the ever growing on line portion is the problem. Getting the consumer to pay for something that has been free is hard.

 Also the actual advertising on line, while growing, has not come close to replacing all of the revenue losses from the print product. Many papers eventually will be only available on line, some will be in the next few years and others as the NY Times CEO mentioned maybe about 10 years. Big dailies still generate hundreds of millions in revenue from the print product, so papers need to be very careful how all of this is rolled out.

All of the Toronto papers print versions have been shrinking in size over the past decade. The hardest hit has been the Toronto Sun especially with the Sunday Sun which is only a fraction of the size from 7-10 years ago. The Saturday Star is still a big paper but the the other 6 days are generally much smaller than a few years ago. 

The so called "hand outs" from the government again have been mostly tax credits and are spread over 5 years for a total of $545 million.  This five year total is not just for daily newspapers but also includes weekly and community papers.  The actual amounts for big dailies like the Star, National Post, Globe, etc while somewhat helpful are not large and certainly will not make or break the company.  

 

January 5, 2020 8:47 pm  #7


Re: Toronto Star: The Incredibly Shrinking Paper

I believe the only place where print is still relevant is in small communities, such as Farr Northern communities or Pass thunder Bay, where Internet access is not available as widely as it is down here.

 

January 5, 2020 9:34 pm  #8


Re: Toronto Star: The Incredibly Shrinking Paper

Redbox5 wrote:

I believe the only place where print is still relevant is in small communities, such as Farr Northern communities or Pass thunder Bay, where Internet access is not available as widely as it is down here.

I believe you are wrong. Go into the Toronto subway system.
Unless you have Freedom mobile, you have nothing to read on your phone.
Data only works there (in the underground parts) with Freedom mobile.
Telus, Rogers and Bell fail to agree on how to provide service there, so they get left out. 


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

January 5, 2020 10:11 pm  #9


Re: Toronto Star: The Incredibly Shrinking Paper

@ Redbox -- I just found out that a paper I read religiously when living there is gone:  The Winchester Press.  It was one of a small chain of family-owned weeklies south of Ottawa. It's sister paper in nearby Chesterville is apparently on its last legs. Major blows to the community.

 

January 6, 2020 9:52 am  #10


Re: Toronto Star: The Incredibly Shrinking Paper

If there truly is a demand for that paper, perhaps the employees, with a little help from the feds, could set up a non profit co-op paper that the community would support.

 

January 7, 2020 10:03 am  #11


Re: Toronto Star: The Incredibly Shrinking Paper

How much does it REALLY cost to put together some newsprint with news articles in it anyway?

Everyone has to be paid, yes, but at the end of the day when all is said and done, I would have gladly paid a quarter for something loaded with advertising...I just don't get why it has to be so damn expensive at the box.

Heck, with the right amount of advertising, maybe the Toronto Star print edition can be a free publication?


 


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

January 7, 2020 3:18 pm  #12


Re: Toronto Star: The Incredibly Shrinking Paper

You get a much better deal if you subscribe to a paper rather than buying it every so often or everyday at the box or convenience store.  Also with subscriptions you will get any special magazines and features (golf, auto, homeshows etc.) that the paper publishes where you may not buying single copy. Like magazines, newspapers will offer some good deals to you when it comes time to renew your subscription.

Cost? Newsprint is expensive and papers buy their newsprint in advance and place large orders when prices are lower to try and save money. Newsprint is a commodity and prices go up and down all the time.

Daily papers subscribe to a lot of news and advertising services which tend to be expensive. I don't know the size of the Toronto Star's newsroom now, but back 12-15 years ago they had about 350 almost all full time in the newsroom. Today a guesstimate would be about half of that. The Toronto Star at it's peak had over 1,000 employees and this was not counting carriers, or delivery.

Physically getting the paper  out everyday to thousands of dealers, carriers, is very expensive with contract drivers.  Recruiting new carriers is a constant and phone verifications through telesales to make sure the papers and flyers have been delivered also a big cost. Many flyer customers will ask for a verification of delivery routes.

Even the boxes where you buy your paper, these boxes cost about $700 each, and are in constant need of repair.

Most papers don't print their product on site any longer because of technology, however the contracts that the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail signed for printing of their paper every day are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. A new press with all of the latest technology and upgrades can cost over 1 billion dollars.

So newspapers still have high overheads since they are still manufacturing a physical product with the daily print version of the paper. More and more will turn to only on line editions eventually, but for most of the big dailies the revenue from the print product is still quite a bit larger than what is generated with on line even when all of the costs are taken into account.

Last edited by paterson1 (January 7, 2020 3:22 pm)

 

January 7, 2020 4:07 pm  #13


Re: Toronto Star: The Incredibly Shrinking Paper

One observation.  I sometimes wonder if the folks at Torstar have lost their minds completely?  I subscribe to APPLE+ News, (around $16.99 per month) which includes - allegedly - a subscription to the Toronto star.  One of the "selling points" of Apple News+ when it morphed from Texture, was the availability of an online subscription to "the Star".  The "online" Star, (via Apple News+) lacks a high percentage of relevant stories, (to me) as a Toronto resident - that the paper (print edition) carries. It also has a high percentage of "local" stories for other Canadian cities, that are of no relevance to Toronto readers.  Content is seldom refreshed, meaning stories that are days or weeks old, predominate or at least displace (in order) breaking stories.  If this Apple News+ digital version of the Star is where the company is headed, then I think things are even more bleak for Torstar.   Perhaps they derive little revenue from the Apple+ edition and put very little effort into the online publication (robotic uploads?).  But as a consumer I am really confused as to the product(s) Torstar are publishing.  A 3rd class product for a % of online Apple News+ subscribers?  A different product if I subscribe directly?   Anyone familiar with their different online publications?  Perhaps there is another (better) subscription version of the Star available, but given the fact that I have a fixed budget for publications, I'm not about to commit to another Torstar subscription sight unseen.   Don't get me started on the Globe and Mail "Globe2Go" subscription service. It has warts too.   If you pay the $28 bucks per month, for Globe2Go, you are not able to receive "breaking news" and many stories on their digital online Globe website are blocked even to Globe2Go subscribers.  The sole benefit of Globe2Go is you get a reasonable replica of the "print" version and if you are out of the country (as I am frequently), their publication times are reasonable, even if you are in Europe.  But it's a clunky app versus the services offered by Washington Post (about $22 Cdn per year for non-Americans) and NYTimes - which is the best online experience overall.

Comments?

Last edited by tvguy (January 7, 2020 4:22 pm)

 

January 7, 2020 4:17 pm  #14


Re: Toronto Star: The Incredibly Shrinking Paper

Accessing the Star was one of the reasons we subscribed to Apple News, but alas, the Star content is seldom new and there's little, if any, breaking news.

But the other news services are pretty good.

 

January 7, 2020 5:28 pm  #15


Re: Toronto Star: The Incredibly Shrinking Paper

I don't really know enough about Apple News to comment why the Star's content is lacking. I know the Star website does all right with 33 million page views per month and 5.7 million unique visitors monthly .Looks like they trail the Globe and CBC for traffic in Canada.  The websites are updated all the time. Doesn't sound like Apple News is a priority for them for some reason.

I do know that newspapers do keep the content somewhat different on line than what is offered in print. so that is likely why there isn't as much local content on the electronic versions as the print product. But the on line version also has features not available in print.  Not saying this is how it should be but that's seems to be how it is right now. Print versions of the paper also tend to have more detailed and longer stories , and more detail in investigative reporting.

Globe2Go I don't know much about at all.  I am still old school, just the websites and physical paper.  I can't get into reading newspapers or articles on my phone.

Last edited by paterson1 (January 7, 2020 5:28 pm)

 

January 12, 2020 10:48 am  #16


Re: Toronto Star: The Incredibly Shrinking Paper

Radiowiz wrote:

    At the end of the day when all is said and done, I would have gladly paid a quarter for something loaded with advertising...I just don't get why it has to be so damn expensive at the box.  Heck, with the right amount of advertising, maybe the Toronto Star print edition can be a free publication? 

At the end of the day, you get what you pay for.

K.