The building housing the 157-year-old Brantford Expositor has been sold, but the days of the daily newspaper are not numbered, publisher Mike Walsh told readers today.
Walsh says "The Expositor building has been sold and we will be relocating to a brand new facility that will better meet the needs of our advertisers, our readers and our staff.
"Unfortunately, at this time, I cannot share further details about our new location as the plans have yet to be finalized. We will be revealing the plans soon," he says in his "setting the record straight" comments to readers.
TSF tipsters who have been posting comments about the pending sale of the building and staff cutbacks, have wondered about the future of the Sun Media daily.
Walsh says while the building has been sold and "we have had to say goodbye to tremendous employees who have enriched The Expositor for a number of years," the paper has a future.
"No, your Expositor is not closing. Your Expositor is alive and well, and we look forward to continuing to serve the needs of our community like only we can, like only we have, for another 157 years."
Write on, Mike.
Walsh says "The Expositor building has been sold and we will be relocating to a brand new facility that will better meet the needs of our advertisers, our readers and our staff.
"Unfortunately, at this time, I cannot share further details about our new location as the plans have yet to be finalized. We will be revealing the plans soon," he says in his "setting the record straight" comments to readers.
TSF tipsters who have been posting comments about the pending sale of the building and staff cutbacks, have wondered about the future of the Sun Media daily.
Walsh says while the building has been sold and "we have had to say goodbye to tremendous employees who have enriched The Expositor for a number of years," the paper has a future.
"No, your Expositor is not closing. Your Expositor is alive and well, and we look forward to continuing to serve the needs of our community like only we can, like only we have, for another 157 years."
Write on, Mike.
Why was this issue not addressed at the beginning of the year when the rumours started?
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Expositor moving out of downtown: They're digging their own grave.
ReplyDeleteArguably, downtown is the liveliest it has been in the last 30 years. Thanks to the universities and college in its core.
The lack of presence downtown will be a great deterement for it to retain any viability.
For example look at Kitchener.
Kitchener just recently returned to its downtown roots.
They're running scared of the new Brant News.
It's being put together by a number of talented and long-time ex-Expositor employees.
And everyone HATES the Expo redesign-everyone.
The homogenized look isn't working.
Pick up any Sunmedia paper and exchange the masthead.
Readers aren't stupid.
Wonder why circulation has dropped to below 17,000?
The once proud Brantford Expositor is
a former shadow of what it was and the readers and advertisers know it.
AND PKP wants to bring an NHL team to Quebec City?
I wonder where he got all his money?
Ask the people that worked beside you and now are gone.
Gad, it is getting tiring to see the assault on reader intelligence these minions carry out with a straight face. I guarantee that the new building selection was based on a) frugality; b) cost and c) return generated for the bottom line. If it also proves to "better suit the needs of our advertisers (and) readers" (how? Is it closer to them?) it is by pure accident. In my hometown, Quebecor has turned a once vibrant, well-respected (inside and outside the industry), paid-circulation twice-a-week community newspaper that focused on real news into a once-a-week freebie that rarely features anything more hard-hitting than how bad the weather is. It sold its conveniently located office and moved into a bandbox of a closet way out of the town core. And it regularly runs promo ads talking about how it has continued to evolve to "better suit the needs of our advertisers and readers," and how positively the community has responded ... never mind that it is now smaller at once a week than either of its twice-weekly issues a decade ago, or that circulation is but a fraction now, or that its classified ads - once upon a time requiring 4-5 pages each issue - now fit quite nicely on one page, and are surrounded by bad promo ads. These people just lie and, worse, know that the public knows they lie, yet they are quite comfortable with it. Oh, the humanity ....
ReplyDeleteIts that same Deja Vu all over again...
ReplyDeleteWalsh did the same thing when he was Publisher at the Cobourg Star. Moved us all into a cramped office downtown, then let us strike out front for 4 months...
It's pretty sad when a newspaper has to run stories that they are not closing. Pathetic, actually.
ReplyDeleteBut hey, who says Quebecor understands their marketplaces? That's why they want to bankroll an NHL team in a failed market that's still too small to support an NHL franchise, new rink or not.
As an advertiser, I see The Expositor as the local Walmart of newspaper publishing. They care nothing for their employees or advertisers, and arrogantly believe they can offer whatever they want and charge whatever they feel because they're the only show in town.
ReplyDeleteNot so anymore. The return of Brant News this morning is a breath of fresh air for this community, as far as I'm concerned.
Isn't it hilarious that the Expos are only now prepared to offer deals galore to retain my business?
Where were they when we were hurting six months ago???? And they have the gall to consider themselves community partners as they turn tail and run for the sterile industrial parks of Brantford. PSHAW!
If you were so community-oriented you'd suck it up and stay downtown to help usher in its rebirth!
I'll take my new Brant News over this trashy "Brant Connection", or whatever they're calling the Weekender these days.
I noticed in this Saturday's Expositor on the page beside Kids Creative Stuff & Such there was a small feature about the latest issue of Playboy featuring Marge Simpson. A perfectly harmless photo however one of the questions beside the cover photo about Marge was,
ReplyDelete"Does the carpet match the drapes?"
I thought this was a community paper!?! Gross!!
Well, I don't see how a naked Marge Simpson on a porno mag is 'perfectly harmless' but yes, I noticed it too and I was appalled.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see someone explain that to their kids.
So the Expositor is publishing the Brant Connection? That's the one with the pumpkins on it from Waterford yes? So where's the Weekender? I haven't seen that in a while now. I thought they'd stopped doing that one.
ReplyDeleteThe Brant Connection IS the Weekender. The Expositor put that out there to combat The Brant News. Looks like it's mostly re-cycled content from their daily plus a couple of sections that ran a week or so before to help pad it out.
ReplyDeleteThe Weekender is now the Brant Connection - they had to hurry up and make up something new because they were scared of the Brant News
ReplyDeleteSo not only have they "come up with" Brant Connection but now The Expositor has changed their Homes section to look exactly like the Brant News Home section. Anyone else notice that today?
ReplyDelete