The page of 127 years of history is turned in the newspaper Le Soleil with its latest paper edition

It was a mixture of enthusiasm and nostalgia among the employees of the newspaper the sun The final paper edition of the daily, which was published on Saturday after 127 years of existence, was getting ready to turn a page of history on Friday.

“We are giving ourselves a real chance not only to survive, but to grow,” the editor of the sunMarc Gendron, the production and distribution costs of paper newspapers are becoming more “heavier”.

“If this continues, it could lead to the end of our group,” he added, adding that all dailies of the Coops de l'information group will end publication of paper editions in March 2020. Saturdays

96 pages

At the daily's offices on Charest Boulevard, employees were busy Friday revising for the last time the 96 pages of this special edition, in which we find no news, but historical moments in the daily, first published on December 28, 1896.

“It's not the sun It dies, on the contrary, it is just an object, a mode of diffusion […] It's the last bulwark of a paper that's falling apart and we want to celebrate that,” said former editor-in-chief Valerie Gaudreau, who will become a municipal columnist starting in January.

Voluntary departures

For 25 employees, most of whom were connected to the production of the paper version, this latest edition also ended their careers at the daily newspaper.

“It was difficult, there was a certain emotional tear, we couldn't hide it, but the people who decided to leave did so voluntarily, it was by mutual agreement,” Mr. Gendron noted.

This is especially true of columnist François Bourque and production director René Dufresne, respectively, who are employed by the sun 2001 and since 1979.

“I have a little pain in my heart. I came into the world with paper,” said Mr. Bourque, who was also a newsboy for a daily newspaper at the age of 11. “I've been following the rhythm of the paper newspaper for more than 40 years, while the end of paper itself is a symbol,” he says.

The day was filled with emotion for Mr. Dufresne, who recalled that he, for his part, went from making a newspaper to gluing paper models to computing. “It was quite a change for my work team at the time!” He manages.

Information Copes across the group, including good, The Daily, The Voice of the East, Gallery And The Novelist125 employees are leaving the ship.

These dailies will also stop publishing their paper edition on Saturday.

A strong tendency

According to Eric-Pierre Champagne, president of the Professional Federation of Journalists of Quebec, the end of the paper's edition on Saturday the sun The media in Quebec witnessed a trend to continue in the world.

“This is a continuation of what we have seen in recent years. Unfortunately, the paper no longer has a future, but the media wants to cut their costs,” he said.

In total, the sun It now has about thirty journalists in its newsroom.

so, Quebec Journal And destiny They became the only daily newspapers published in paper version in Quebec.