EDMONTON – It’s the end of an era for Edmonton Journal readers who had a ritual of reading the Sunday paper, as this Sunday edition will be the Journal’s last.
The Journal announced last month it will now be focusing more on online content and the advertising opportunities that go along with it. It’s not the only paper to do so. Its Postmedia publisher said it will also be cutting the Sunday editions of the Calgary Herald and Ottawa Citizen.
One person not surprised by the move is Terry McConnell, whose column ‘The Telescope’ used to be a fixture in the Sunday reader.
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“The business model that supports daily newspapers is broken and has been for several years,” he says.
But McConnell doesn’t think scrapping the Sunday edition is necessarily the best fix.
“It’s a brand builder, it’s a circulation builder. Not every paper that a paper produces has to be its own profit centre.”
While people will still be able to get their news online, not everyone is keen on that method.
“It’s not my thing and I think a lot of my other senior friends will agree,” says regular Sunday reader, Valerie Roberton.
“Online is great,” adds Ron Lamarre while sitting at the Wild Earth Bakery and Cafe, “but it’s nice to have something that you can physically take and hold and, you know, there’s no computers in here. You don’t want to sit here with your laptop.”
The Journal is currently also re-evaluating the way it distributes the paper to rural areas. It’s considering opting digital versions only of the paper along with other cost cutting measures.
With files from Jenna Bridges, Global News
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