Montreal's English newspaper will no longer be distributed daily. The Gazette will cease publishing a print version on Sundays as of Aug. 8.
A release issued on The Gazette's website Wednesday by Alan Allnutt, the newspaper's publisher and editor-in-chief, stated the newspaper will continue publishing online seven days a week.
"In its 22-year existence, the Sunday Gazette has struggled to find significant advertising support to cover the costs of printing and distribution," stated the release, adding that subscriptions and single-copy sales were only a small percentage of the publication's income.
No jobs will be lost, said Bernard Asselin, The Gazette's vice-president of marketing and sales, adding that it's a sign of transition in a struggling print media industry.
"All the news media organizations are looking for the ideal model... so it's a matter of trial and error," said Asselin. "In our case, we just want to focus and offer the best print product for six days and slowly do a transition to the web, like everybody else."
The newspaper will transfer some of Sunday's most popular columns, such as Social Notes, the Sunday New York Times crossword, comics and sports opinion pages, to the Saturday paper.
The Montreal Gazette recently changed ownership after Postmedia Network Canada Corp. acquired Canwest's newspaper division for $1.1-billion.
Postmedia, led by Paul Godfrey, is currently finalizing the acquisition of assets.
Postmedia bought The Gazette, along with The Vancouver Sun, The Calgary Herald, Ottawa Citizen, and National Post along with their portfolio of digital media and online assets including canada.com, Dose.ca and FPinfomart.ca.
Another local newspaper, La Presse, abandoned its Sunday paper last year.
