Saturday, August 8, 2009

Verdun Messenger Group

  Here's some info on the Verdun Messanger portion of this whole company's website:

 

Le Messager Verdun

Le Messager Verdun publishes part of its editorial content in English to accommodate its Anglo readership, making the paper a favourite venue for advertisers. By producing special supplements, the paper participates in major local events that punctuate community life.

 

In Brief

Coverage: Borough of Verdun

Foundation:
Founded in 1913 by a certain "M. Léger of Rielle Street," Le Messager Verdun was acquired by Henri Duhamel in 1918. Circulation quickly grew from 300 to 6,000 copies.

For more than 50 years, Henri Duhamel simultaneously ran the Verdun Printing Company and Le Messager Verdun, also known as Verdun Messenger by English-speaking readers, who, up until the 1970s, represented 40% of Verdun's population.

Henri Duhamel Jr. and his team eventually set out to acquire a number of other weeklies, which they then brought together under the name Publications Dumont. In the early 1990s, the Cogéco group bought Publications Dumont, which it later sold to Transcontinental, in October 1996.

Run: 26,379 copies weekly

Prominent Facts:
- A market of more than 47,767 people
- $730,225,105 Cdn in consumer spending
- 22.7% are homeowners

...........now here is the link to their homepage,if you place your cursor over the word 'newspapers'  a complete drop down list will show just how many papers this company has.......            http://www.transcontinentalmedia.com/page-1218606606454.do?lang=en

Company Profile

 

History

Since its creation in 1999, Transcontinental Media has progressed from being a publisher to being a brand leader and producer of content that nurtures the various passions of different communities of interest. Here are the highpoints in our evolution:

1979 - Transcontinental Inc. acquires the newspaper Les Affaires (which was already being printed on our presses) and the magazine SIC (which later became Affaires Plus), thus creating a third sector of activity for the company: Publishing. Then called "Publications Transcontinental", this sector is now known as Transcontinental Media.

1999 - Transcontinental commits to the development of websites, including the full editorial content of our magazines and newspapers, and launches the preshopping website Publisac.ca. The company then purchases the publishing division of Télémédia Communications, which publishes 11 titles, including Canadian Living, Coup de Pouce, Homemakers, Madame au Foyer (now Madame), ELLE QUÉBEC, Style at Home, Western Living, Vancouver Magazine, TV Guide and TV Hebdo. Transcontinental Media is created, grouping together the publishing activities of the magazines and newspapers, as well as home distribution.

2001 - The acquisition of the weekly newspapers from Groupe Unimedia and most of Gesca's weeklies leads to the addition of 18 weeklies and six periodicals. In the same year, Transcontinental Media made several important launches, notably:

  • The Metro daily, distributed free to Montreal metro users
  • ELLE CANADA magazine, for the English market in Canada
  • The lesAffaires.com website, a financial and economic news portal
  • mokasofa.com and mochasofa.com, the news and information portals for women.

2002 - Nearly 900 new employees join the team at Transcontinental Media as part of the biggest transaction in our history: The acquisition of 12 regional and local newspapers from CanWest Global Communications, published in the four Atlantic Provinces and in Saskatchewan, as well as some 30 related publications. Shortly after follows the acquisition of Ottawa Business Journal and éditions Versicolores (Fleurs, Plantes et Jardins and Spécialités Terre à Terre).

2004 - With the acquisition of the Optipress printer and publisher, Transcontinental Media integrates 26 weekly and biweekly newspapers in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, becoming the main publisher of regional and local newspapers in Atlantic Canada.

Transcontinental Media also consolidates the consumer magazine portfolio with the acquisition of Avid Media, the publisher of such respected titles as Canadian Gardening, Canadian Home & Country, Canadian Home Workshop and Outdoor Canada.

2006 - Digital media group is consolidated. This group reaches 4.3 million Canadians each month on 200 websites, with quality content that is constantly updated. Transcontinental Media also makes an entry into a segment with high growth potential in the publishing world by acquiring Chenelière Éducation, the biggest publisher of specialized textbooks in French in Canada.

2007 - Transcontinental Media continues to pursue growth by acquiring several publications, among them The Springhill-Parrsboro Record in Nova Scotia, Seaway News in Ontario, and The Oxbow Herald in Saskatchewan, as well as recette.qc.ca. In addition, the Company diversifies activities with a majority share in Enixa Media, a Québec leader in the management and installation of point-of-purchase digital networks for advertising display.

2007 - Transcontinental Media launches Transcontinental Custom Communications, a business created in partnership with the British agency Seven Squared, to offer custom publishing services for Canadian and American customers. Custom publishing is an opportunity to provide business with the strategic and innovative services that let them reach their marketing objectives, thanks to unique and personalized content, in print or digital formats. Also in the Transcontinental Custom Communications specialized magazines portfolio are ASOS.com, The Sharp, Real Living and Fly.Magazine.

2008 - Transcontinental Media enriches the portfolio with the titles More, Publimag and Recipefeast.com, and sets up the Marketing Services team, a one-stop shop for custom integrated marketing solutions.

To follow the evolution of Transcontinental Media, check the What's new section regularly.

        http://www.transcontinentalmedia.com/page-1218606606454.do?lang=en

                                              HF&RV

9 comments:

Les F said...

Hey MaggieMck,......it looks like your province has it's version of the messenger too...
2002 - Nearly 900 new employees join the team at Transcontinental Media as part of the biggest transaction in our history: The acquisition of 12 regional and local newspapers from CanWest Global Communications, published in the four Atlantic Provinces and in Saskatchewan, as well as some 30 related publications. Shortly after follows the acquisition of Ottawa Business Journal and éditions Versicolores (Fleurs, Plantes et Jardins and Spécialités Terre
I know here in BC we have a similar local newspaper which is all under the umbrella of the City Wide Classified & can be found in any small community around the province...
Again these papers are usually the conduit for flyers and other advertising ,they are in for the money too ,the paper is free,but it never arrives without an arm full of flyers filled with all sorts of things we didn't know we needed,till the sale date................lol HF&RV

Les F said...

Wow have a look at this link on the transcontinetal site ,this is under the 'Our Brands' click on that and have a look at the amount of things they have their gruby little pinky's into.
http://www.transcontinentalmedia.com/page-brandsov.do
once you click on the link & see the list of names ,you can then click on any of those links & then read a detailed description of that particular arm of their company:
For instance one is called 'The Guardian' it's from Charlottetown & has the highest penetration of readership ,pegged at 67 % ........
HF&RV

Guy Billard said...

Les
I have to correct some of the figures mentioned. The English population in the 30s, 40s and 50s represented 65% of the population in Verdun. Today those figures have reversed as the English population now stands at 15%, French at 65% and Allophones 15%, more or less. Incidently I was on Henri Duhamel street today doing some research and I will report later.
Guy

Les F said...

Hello Guy,....I only posted the actual website of the present day owners of the Messanger ,I am not privy to their facts & figures they use .....So I would suggest perhaps emailing them directly & asking where did they get their figures from, & asking their source, I certainly would be interested in hearing their side of the story too. My abilities to converse in both languages is limited & certainly not what I would call 'fluent' so I would defer to someone else to email them & ask,Mine is more of what I would think of has a relatively good working knowledge of both languages. Grammar not withstanding...lol Perhaps you can help us here,I look forward to any responses you can share with us from them.
ps: I think this leads me into a perfect 'segway' to use the old term 'Don't shoot the Messanger"
....................lol.............................Have Fun and Remember Verdun
ps: also I would have to say that Anglo & Allo should be a combined percentage,as they represent only a new age definition of, or way of, dividing the populus.........?
I am also reminded of the old thought , that 72% of all 'stats' are made up on the spot............................... Cheers!!!
I am also suspect of any definitive 'facts' from library's as we've all found many mistakes over the years,.......and the info is only as good as the input.. Remember GIGO

Guy Billard said...

Les,
As we all know, all figures can be disputed. As far as the population of Verdun at different times, the City of Verdun are the best source of information as they have the interest and resources to make reliable studies. I wiill see what I can dig up.
Guy

Les F said...

Thanks Guy, I agree the City records should be the most accurate,sometimes company's just put out a number as a matter of convenience.......but mistakes cannot always be avoided as we've witnessed from different museum & city archive sites over the years.Proximity to the facts are the best we can hope for. Cheers!! HF&RV

Guy Billard said...

Les,
Here are some preliminary figures on the population of Verdun in 1991 by Statistics Canada 1991:
French: 61,307 67%
English: 13 915 23%
Others: 6,432 10%
I know it does not cover the period in question but it's a start. I have other figures somewhere still to come.
Guy
Guy

Les F said...

Have a look at this Interactive Map of Canada,I've had it posted on 'my site' for months it gives more recent day breakdown across the whole country
http://www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/map-languages-canada/
However regardless of numbers,the original topic ,was showing How Big the company that owns the Messangher is,....probably wealthy enough to print their papers in any language....lol HF&RV

Les F said...

The ongoing Saga of the messanger's decision to print in one language......here's a story from Today's Gazette re: the Mayor of Lasalle weighing into the frey..........................
LaSalle borough councillor Michael Vadacchino isn't taking the elimination of English content in local community papers lying down.

When Transcontinental announced July 16 that it was dropping the English translation of articles from five local papers, Vadacchino started a petition in LaSalle to pressure the publishing giant to put the English back in papers serving his community, Verdun, Lachine-Dorval, Nuns' Island and the southwest borough.

"If we don't start sticking up for our rights we've lost them" Vadacchino said.

He said he was told by someone at Transcontinental that because of the economic downturn and loss of advertising, there was no room to to run the same articles in French and English in Le Méssager, the paper that is distributed free in LaSalle.

"I understand the economics of it, of course, it's a business, but as a citizen, that's not my problem, they've given this service for years, so now what?

"There are 80-year-olds and even 60-years-olds who are too old to learn French, a lot of people in LaSalle are truly unilingual and this is cutting them off from society," Vadacchino said.

"The newspaper was always francophone-based and we offered some translation of articles, but we have new tools and habits and a large majority of people like to go on the Web for local news," said Sylvain Morissette, vice-president of corporate communications for Transcontinental.

Click on a story on their website and a computer-generated translation will come up. Morissette said his company has invested a lot of money developing the online version of the paper.

"We don't want to stop offering services to the English community but the space demands for (translated) articles were higher than what we could offer," Morissette said.

"I'm not young and I'm not that up on using the computer," said longtime LaSalle resident Elizabeth Mullan.

"There's a lot of English people in LaSalle and they should be represented," said Mary Lewis, who has lived in the area for 33 years.

The petition asking for the inclusion of English in the papers is in hard-copy form and circulating in various churches in LaSalle.

Morissette said he is aware of the petition but that more actual news can be included in the paper by subtracting the translations.

Tomorrow, interested parties can sign the petition between 1 and 4 p.m. at 7639A Centrale St. between 4th and 5th Aves.
Personally, I doubt there's serious 'cost' to translating the minute amount of stories that actusally appeared in both languages, It's an oportune time to change direction & blame the economic downturn...........If this is a serious problem then the Quebec Gov't should allow someone to print & distribute a paper in any language they see fit,since it's all economics,then let others take the reigns of their own business without the over zealous actions from the oppresive looking Gov't rules that have been trying for decades to ruin any type of harmony that has existed.....
If Gov't 's minded their own business,there would likely be no real problems,people would support whicever paper they wanted to..Almost like in a Free & Democratic society......Imagine That !!
.....Hmmmm I wonder what would happen if the company decided to eliminate French from it's papers.........Yea like that would be allowed to happen....... JMHO HF&RV