Montreal news outlet La Presse to cut 37 jobs as advertising revenue drops

MONTREAL – Management at Montreal’s La Presse news group informed unionized employees Thursday that efforts to cut costs will lead to the elimination of 37 jobs through voluntary buyouts.

The media outlet has 230 journalists in its newsroom and a total of 550 employees.

La Presse, formerly owned by a subsidiary of Power Corporation of Canada, officially adopted a not-for-profit structure last July. At the time, Power Corp. agreed to grant $50 million to the new venture.

Last May, La Presse president Pierre-Elliott Levasseur said the business model conceived in 2010 did not conform to today’s media reality, in which Facebook and Google have eaten heavily into advertising revenue.

Traditional media in the country are grappling with the loss of revenue, resulting in mass layoffs, publication closures and a shift to fewer print editions and more online publications.

The 130-year-old La Presse ended its print edition in 2017 and publishes only on its website and tablet edition.

Negotiations with the union for a new collective agreement are ongoing.

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A subsidiary of La Presse holds an investment in The Canadian Press as part of a joint agreement with the Toronto Star and a subsidiary of the Globe and Mail.

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