The End of the Community Review Newspapers. The Lance, The Herald, The Times, The Metro, Headliner 2026

 

The community newspapers are older than most people think. In Winnipeg, the first of them came in 1917 and would eventually become 6 community papers by 2022. The were reduced to an eastern and western print paper and went down to four employees. And now there will be none. Only two will work for the Free Press. The other two and over 800 delivery contractors are out of a job. The Lance, The Herald, The Times, The Metro and Headliner will fade into memory.

I worked for the company in their office while at university as well as delivering them the paper during school for a time. It was hyperlocal and good for advertisers for very specific ads and announcements. For example, Charleswood Days in Motion knew they could reach everyone in the community with the newspaper. And the publisher knew that flyers would pay for the editor and reporter filling it with content.

Most grocery stores still find flyers to be effective for driving traffic and awareness of product and prices in their stores. While some people do use online to look at store offerings and order as such, this is still not how many people make a grocery list. If you get the same thing every week at Instacart or order online for everything perhaps you don't care. Many people can and will make choices if they know something is on sale.

Transcontinental Printing eventually bought all the community papers in the 1990s and by 2004, in a retreat from Manitoba, the company sold everything to the owners of the Free Press. The renamed company was called Canstar. By 2005, it had also bought Uptown and Prime Times. By 2011, Uptown was folded into the Free Press. The name has faded but it used to be the counter culture paper in town. A magazine offshoot of the group called Winnipeg Boomer started in 2011 or to finish in 2012.

Still from 2012 to 2026, Canstar continued print publishing although the multiples newspapers became just east and west with a circulation each week of over 200,000. What made it all work was the store flyers. Grocery and pharmacy flyers accounted for 10 to 25% of revenues. In an online world, flyers still had a place and helped the bottom like of newspapers.

The Free Press owners likely never thought they would see Transcontinental again and certainly with the partner they have. Canada Post with its ad mail program is bundling TC Transcontinental flyers in something called Raddar to 350,000 homes. The community newspapers have lost their fundamental financial support. Unlike the community papers, there is no opt out for ad mail from Canada Post. It will be delivered even if you put into in recycling. They are deaf to your complaints.

The Free Press and other publisher have a serious concern over the subsidy Raddar gets to send weekly mailings out. The Free Press would like the same subsidy. The devastation to the community papers across Canada cannot be understated. It is too late in Winnipeg so it remains to be be seen what the Competition Bureau can do now. Still, if Canada decides to end the post office which is a possibility, advertisers are probably going to wish they didn't torpedo community papers.

And for those who we can go digital keep in mind how many digital platforms go poof as well how many require you pay in American currency. The locally owned and operated systems to get your grocery sales in front of your customers might be fewer, more expensive and less effective. It is galling that Canada Post might be the nail in the coffin for community news.