Stop the presses: Globe and Mail ends print edition in Maritimes

The Globe and Mail will stop delivering its print edition to the Maritimes, the newspaper said Monday.

Phillip Crawley, the publisher and CEO, said it followed the decision made in 2013 to stop printing in Newfoundland and Labrador.

"In keeping with the same policy, we have watched print subscriber numbers declining in the Maritimes over the last few years as we've seen digital subscriptions increase," he told CBC News in a phone interview.

"It gets to the point where it makes no sense to keep on subsidizing print delivery to that degree, where it's costing us $1 million a year to do that, and that's where it's now at with the Maritimes."

He said the decision was not related to the SaltWire Network's recent acquisition of several of Transcontinental's printing presses in Nova Scotia.

The newspaper recently hired a new Atlantic Canada correspondent, filling a post that had been vacant for more than a year. Crawley said Halifax-based Jessica Leeder will start reporting in September. 

"We're very much interested in the stories coming out of the Maritime provinces. We have a national audience that would expect us to do that."

People anywhere can still get the digital version of the newspaper.

Subscribers were informed of the change via email this week. "Our core mission is to invest in journalism that matters, so the money now being spent on subsidizing uneconomic delivery routes will be redirected to creating content for all of our customers across the country," the email reads in part. 

Crawley said the Globe and Mail will still provide national coverage.

"We never said we'd deliver to every town, village, hamlet or whatever. We haven't done that. We make a decision on where it makes sense based on the number of people who want to read it," Crawley said.

Print version makes 'a lot of revenue' 

They have no plans to create an Atlantic Canadian version of the digital paper, although they have tried that in B.C..

Crawley said while they expect the trend from print to digital will continue, the Globe and Mail plans to keep printing the newspaper in the rest of Canada for at least the next decade.

"We believe print has a big part of our future. We make a lot of revenue from print advertising as well as print subscriptions and we see that carrying on well into the future," he said.

The Globe and Mail will stop delivering to Maritime subscribers on Dec. 1.