More than 600 people are losing their jobs after the parent company that owns the Toronto Star said it was getting out of the community newspaper and flyer businesses.
Nordstar, the company that owns the Toronto Star and other newspapers, said last month that it is seeking bankruptcy protection for the unit that owns more than 70 local newspapers and magazines and axing hundreds of jobs.
The Etobicoke Guardian, which has served the community dutifully for decades, is one of the many regional newspapers that will be shut. It and a number of other publications will only have an online presence.
Nordstar says it is putting its Metroland Media Group division into creditor protection under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act as part of a restructuring plan.
Metroland owns dozens of community newspapers and magazines which are delivered alongside advertising flyers. The company said it is getting out of the flyer business entirely.
“The decline of the print and flyer distribution business was significantly accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and by the reduction of flyer usage both by readers and advertisers as a marketing vehicle,” the company said in a statement.
Only the company’s six daily newspapers will continue in print and online. Those publications include the Hamilton Spectator, Peterborough Examiner, St. Catharines Standard, Niagara Falls Review, Welland Tribune and the Waterloo Region Record.
Those being shuttered in print includes the Guardian and newspapers serving Mississauga, Brampton, North York, Scarborough, Vaughan, Pickering, Oshawa, Oakville and Burlington among others.
In February 1981, Metrospan Community Newspapers, a unit of Torstar and Inland Publishing Company, which was formerly owned by The Telegram Corporation, and the Eaton and Bassett families, merged to become Metroland.
At one time the company had as many as 20,000 delivery persons province-wide performing door-to-door delivery of flyers, papers and print materials.
Metroland at its peak owned four printing plants in Ontario. Its presses had the capacity of printing 250,000 newspapers in full-colour every hour.
The closures and layoffs followed failed talks between Postmedia and Metroland Media Group to merge to become a stronger company.
News outlets have been under pressure for years claiming online giants like Google and Facebook owner Meta have scooped up advertising dollars.
Area residents and businesses said they were saddened over the closures since it gives them less outlets to get their message and sales out to the community.