Elliot Lake Standard selling building --a microcosm of small newspaper economics

The Quebecor corporate restructuring is having a ripple effect even in the smallest communities where it publishes newspapers. Much like the PostMedia chain, Quebecor has been getting rid of real estate. The latest to announce the sale of its building is The Standard in Elliot Lake. “This is all part of right-sizing the business that all newspapers are doing to insure that they survive the new realities of people getting their news and information from the Internet,” says Karsten Johansen, the weekly's general manager. “This is a move to insure our long-term viability.” While The Standard still has many people who subscribe to home delivery, many also turn to the newspaper’s website at www.elliotlakestandard.ca, he said. “In many cases, we have a larger audience going to our website than our printed product.” The weekly has been covering the ongoing public inquiry into last year's mall collapse on a running basis on the Internet. Last fall, The Standard’s printing was moved to The Sault Star, another Quebecor newspaper, and much of the space used to accommodate eight presses as well as huge rolls of newsprint resulted in more than half of the building being empty. Johansen said the newspaper is interested in leasing back part of the building. The population of Elliot Lake is 11,000.