Gatineau rocked by weekly newspaper closure

Gatineau’s French-language weekly newspaper, L’Express de Gatineau, has announced its final edition is to be published September 5. Formerly called La Revue, the newspaper was sold by Transcontinental last fall and re-named L’Express by the new owners, Lexis Media.

Distributed in most Gatineau City homes by Publisac, the closure of this free-distribution newspaper means some 90,000+ homes will no longer have that access to local and professionally produced news.

Their team of journalists and designers has won repeated awards over the years, as well as helped many local organizations with funding drives.

Democratic involvement by citizens in communities without local or varied news sources is far below the average rates, reports the pan-Canadian study by the Public Policy Forum, Shattered Mirror.

Aylmer businesswoman and co-owner of the Bulletin d’Aylmer, Pontiac Journal and West Quebec Post weeklies, Sophie Ryan, commented on the newspaper closure: “This seemed to be a viable and valued local news source.  Why did we all let this happen? If readers want local newspapers, how can they ensure the newspapers remain healthy? Did their readers shop with the advertisers of L’Express? Did advertisers make use of the weekly to grow their businesses? These factors are very important; it’s as though we all want the local news very much, but forget what we ourselves can do to make sure it keeps coming.”

The Bulletin will make every effort to continue providing coverage of community news.