By: E&P Staff Dose, the youth paper published in five big Canadian cities by a unit of CanWest Global Communications, is folding after a year. The company cited the city's intense free-paper competition and struggling advertising.
As a result, about 50 jobs will be eliminated, said CanWest MediaWorks LP, the subsidiary that publishes the National Post and other newspapers across Canada.
CanWest said it would continue to operate Dose's online version, dose.ca, which will become part of its canada.com network.
The last issue of the print edition was published Wednesday. The five-day paper was launched in April 2005 in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa.
"In this very competitive newspaper market, we feel the printed publication will not produce the financial results we expect over the long term, however, we see a growing product in the Dose online and mobile offering which we will continue to develop," CanWest MediaWorks CEO Peter Viner said in a statement.
In some cities, Dose was competing against newspapers partly owned by CanWest, which publishes editions of the global free commuter paper Metro in partnership with Metro International SA and Torstar Corp., publisher of the Toronto Star.
A National Post article Thursday by Financial Post writer Barbara Shecter noted that earlier this year, MediaWorks -- set up as an income trust for certain Canadian tax advantages -- told analysts that it would not continue to fund losses at Dose once it depleted a C$14 million (U.S. $12.6 million) reserve for start-up losses at the youth paper and Metro.
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