yikes! is that what they get paid as a freelancer?

No.

Steve, has the "My Pet World" been cut, or is the guy on vacation?

My Pet World is a syndicated column. It's not written for The Gazette. I'm not sure of its status.

The advertorial fluff will not be affected (i.e. Urban Expressions), not will the hockey blog or breaking news.

There's a post on the Gaz website today from Alan Allnutt addressing this, and if you haven't used up your free monthly views you can read it here:

http://www.montrealgazette.com/Note+online+readers/7119320/story.html

Today is also the day several other Postmedia papers institure their paywalls on their websites, including the Ottawa Citizen.

I just wish the Gazette's website would stop the obnoxious "autoplay" videos. If I want to watch a video, especially one loaded with commercials, allow me the option to click "play" myself. Don't start a video automatically when I click on a story to read it. No self-respecting website designer uses autoplay videos anymore.

It's deeper than that. You have to look at how much of the content is "local", "regional", and "national". Unless a story is completely local, it's likely better covered by a regional or national news system, and placed there accordingly. In the paper age, you may print regional or national stories (in part to puff up the spaced used to balance advertising) but in the digital age, the only think anyone would want from a Montreal news source would be Montreal based stories. If I want to read about the latest gangland shooting in Toronto, I would go to a Toronto source.

Even for sports, I think that it has already been proven on TV: The local news sports report is most narrowly looking at local sports, and allowing in regional or national only as time allows - fluffing up the show. Basically, if you are a sports fan, you get better service watching TSN or Sportsnet or whatever and seeing their 30 minutes sports highlights than you are with 4.5 minutes during an evening newscast.

In going digital, it's unlikely that the Montreal Gazette or any other local paper would survive, except as a regional news desk, and perhaps as a portal to a wider national news service. Think Canada.com without all the bullcrap that they try to pull now.

i'd like to see jack todd go, but i suppose he is needed so they hit their quota of non-alphanumeric characters in the paper...

are there really that many newstand sales, as opposed to subscriber sales, that they feel the need for a giant, pointless photo to draw interest? i'd much rather have actual news stories on the front page

Speaking of Red, they really should keep a page of weekly hockey notes, no matter who writes them. I can't believe the Gazette will let itself be outdone by the Boston Globe in hockey coverage.

Moreover, as the competition is "all of the world", things like wire stories and other filler become more and more meaningless in an online world.

So taking out wire stories and "other filler" from the paper would make sense, no? That's essentially what's being done here, though other cuts are happening as well.

I dislike that all the dailies are morning, so by the time I've scanned them, there is a vast news gap until the evning news 12 hour later.

The alternative is a paper you get at 5pm but doesn't have any news from after noon.

I've been a subscriber for over 20 years. I have a smartphone and an iPad and I'm on Twitter. But I still prefer reading my Gazette every morning.

Now every section is seamless and often I catch myself wondering what section I'm reading.

And by the way, Mike Boone is one of those columnists forced to retire. His last column will be Aug 31. Luckily he will continue to do the Habs live blog during games on hockey inside out.

I've already got the magnifying glass, so I am future-proofed in the ever-shrinking newspaper comics universe.