“TVA Publications is pressing ahead with its strategic plan aimed at strengthening its leading position and better meeting the needs of its readers and advertisers.”
That’s press-release speak for “we’re cutting dead weight to save costs.”
Quebecor’s TVA Publications announced on Wednesday that it is ending six magazines, about 10 per cent of its titles:
- 150 plans (home building and renovation, 3 times a year at 15,750 copies)
- Animal (pets, 8 times a year at 10,844 copies)
- Décormag (home decor, since 1972, 10 times a year at 73,046 copies)
- Le Lundi (women/celebrity/lifestyle, since 1977, 49 times a year at 18,014 copies)
- MOI&cie (women, since 2006, 12 times a year at 70,062 copies)
- Signé M (Louis-François Marcotte’s recipes, 9 times a year at 28,977 copies)
Décormag was one of the 14 magazines TVA acquired from Transcontinental in April. That acquisition and others led to a lot of magazines of similar styles at TVA, and this will help rationalize that a bit.
Lundi is the most interesting shutdown here for me, not just because it’s the only weekly, but because of its history. Lundi was founded by Claude J. Charron after he split off from Pierre Péladeau in 1977. Charron sold the magazine to a company that then sold it to Quebecor, and started a similar magazine called 7 jours. Quebecor bought 7 jours in 2000, and so after a non-compete clause ended Charron started La Semaine. Eventually Charron sold La Semaine to … who else, Quebecor. (Radio-Canada has a story on Charron’s history here.)
Quebecor is keeping 7 jours and La Semaine, but is pulling the plug on the original.
Groupe TVA also issued a press release praising the MOI&cie TV channel, in an effort to cut inevitable speculation about the future of that part of the brand after its magazine’s end.
TVA’s statement doesn’t make any mention of how many jobs will be lost as a result of this decision.
More trees will be saved…who reads those rags anyway
Décormag had 533,000 readers for the average issue, Lundi 317,000, MOI&cie 490,000 and Signé M 325,000 according to Vividata.
Well…that explains a lot, still a good thing, more trees will be saved
That’s almost 20 readers per issue… They all end up in dentists waiting rooms or does it include people who glance at it waiting in line at the cashier?
It includes everyone who says they read the latest issue when surveyed.
So PKP is alright with austerity when it’s his own company, but PKP the politician is anti-auterityu and sides with unions? Bizarre, indeed.
Well, yes. Also, PKP isn’t calling the shots at Quebecor anymore.
With all due respect mister Steve do you really really believe PKP is not calling the shots at Quebecor ? Really ?
He reluctantly gave away for the time being any legal value to his signature on a paper but do you really really think a telephone call is not made or a lunch is not taken with former employees ?
I personnaly have no trust towards this guy who looks and acts like a famous (maybe not so much lately ) Italy former leader.
It depends on the shot. He was apparently consulted on major deals like the selling of community newspapers and Sun Media, but those were not his calls. A trim in the number of magazines isn’t something he would initiate, especially considering his new job.
According to those former employees, this isn’t happening. Maybe they’re lying, I don’t know. But I haven’t seen any evidence that PKP is still involved in the daily business of Quebecor.
That’s not to say there isn’t an obvious conflict here. But I wouldn’t put the responsibility for this decision on him.
Well, well… let’s see here. Which angle is more reasonable:
(a) Dead tree editions are quickly becoming the rotary dial phone of the 21st century, or
(b) Another big merger that leads to less competition, less jobs, and less content produced.
All we need now is for Quebecor to buy Rogers, and Bell to buy Quebecor, and we could get almost all our media from one place.
Looks like it might only the tip of the iceberg. Some rumors mentionned then TVA network might do more deep cuts on its TV network from what I heard on this audio exterpt from the radio show “Midi Actualité” at 107.7 Estrie (formely known as CHLT-FM). http://www.fm1077.ca/lecteur/audio/pelletier-souleve-des-inquietudes-sur-l-avenir-de-295746.mp3
The excerpt is based on a CRTC submission by Quebecor Media calling for flexibility to centralize parts of local newsgathering operations, similar to what Global TV has done.