Transcon rolling out paid, digital editions of 170 papers across Canada

Transcontinental Media, which has developed robust online versions of all its consumer magazines is now rolling out digital editions of all its daily and weekly newspapers. The company says this is a natural progression of its ongoing online strategy.

Twelve dailies in the Atlantic provinces have already been released as digital editions, available to paid subscribers, including the Journal Pioneer, The Western Star, The Guardian, La Nouvelle Union and The Telegram. Plans are to use NewspaperDirect technology to do the same for all of Transcon's 170 papers Canada-wide. These papers reach about 3 million readers a week.

"Transcontinental has always been a model company in terms of its respect for the environment," said Alexander Kroogman, CEO, NewspaperDirect. "We are proud to work with them in the migration of their newspapers to digital, which will not only serve the long-term interests of its readers; it will open opportunities for new revenue streams for the company and its advertising."

Paid subscribers log on and can use any web browser to view digital replicas of the papers, with advertising in place, on devices such as PCs, Macs, smartphones, iPhones, and Blackberry and iPod Touch devices.

For advertisers, it means that their print ads will also be online and will give them the ability to have more options to enhance and make their advertisements more interactive
for readers, the company said in a release.