Transcontinental closes The Daily News, readies Metro Halifax
By Adnews Staff
Transcontinental Media of Montreal ceased publication yesterday of Halifax newspaper The Daily News. Transcontinental acquired the paper in 2002. It has a circulation of approximately 20,000 and a staff of 92. "We worked hard to deliver an economically viable newspaper in the Halifax market with The Daily News," said Marc-Noel Ouellette, senior vice-president of the newspaper group at Transcontinental. "It was an extremely tough business decision which does not affect Transcontinental's Halifax-area distribution network, its four locally published weekly newspapers or the real estate guide Transaction." On Feb. 14, Transcontinental will launch a Halifax version of the free commuter paper Metro in association with Torstar and Metro International. The new paper will have an eventual circulation of 25,000 and will be aimed at an urban audience between the ages of 18 and 49. Greg Lutes has been appointed publisher of Metro Halifax. He was most recently publisher of the Moncton Times & Transcript. Prior to that, he was publisher of Metro Toronto. This will be the seventh Canadian edition of Metro.