The following excerpt was sent out from westernwheel.ca:
(Photo: metromedia.ca)
Métro Média will declare bankruptcy this week, permanently ending its coverage of local government in parts of the province’s two largest cities, the head of the Quebec newspaper publisher said Sunday.
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, CEO Andrew Mulé said the decision was made after the company abruptly suspended operations at its more than 30 hyperlocal publications last month, including the Journal Métro and 16 print weeklies.
“The Journal Métro as you knew it no longer exists. The decision to proceed with the voluntary transfer of Métro Média’s assets has been ratified,” Mulé wrote Sunday.
In a statement sent to employees on Aug. 11, Mulé said he’d been informed the company no longer had the liquidity to continue despite what he described as a “healthy balance sheet.”
On Sunday, he said the impending bankruptcy marks a “sad epilogue” to his 28 months at the helm.
“I think of my teams, our readers and I feel infinite sadness, a lot of bitterness and regrets. I also feel a terrible sense of unfinished business,” Mulé said.
In Quebec, the Métro Média closures will create “news deserts,” spelling “very, very bad news for local democracy,” Patrick White, who teaches journalism at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), told The Canadian Press last month.
He warned of the end of hyperlocal coverage in the province’s two biggest cities, highlighting a dearth of reporting on borough councils in particular.