Dose proves fatal

It may have rounded the corner into its second year (see earlier item) but it almost immediately stumbled into oblivion. Dose, the "daily magazine" is no more. It was launched in April 2005 (right). CanWest MediaWorks is discontinuing the publication and rolling its website dose.ca into its crowded stable of online services. About 50 people will lose their jobs, although it's not clear if Noah Godfrey, the publisher is among them. Although the figure wasn't broken out in CanWest's financials, the free tabloid was losing something like $5 million a year. "In this very competitive newspaper market, we feel the printed publication will not produce the financial results we expect over the long term," said CanWest MediaWorks CEO Peter Viner in a release.

In some senses, it is a shame. Dose was doing some interesting work and seemed successful in appealing to the younger demographic which was its target. But it was always a weird business model and particularly so in the CanWest empire, which can only carry so many money-losers, the principal one being the continuing drain on its side, the National Post.

UPDATE: Fine Young Journalist has a long comment of his own and links to a good many other bloggers' comments on Dose's demise. Why did it die? Take your pick.

UPDATE: Media in Canada reports that Dose.ca was doing much better than the print vehicle, with 160,000 unique visitors a month. It will now carry on as the "youth" component of CanWest's media mix.