Montreal loses both its English alt weeklies in close succession

Quebecor Media's decision last week to shut down the Montreal Mirror leaves the city without an English-language alternative weekly (though it always seemed odd to have an alt weekly owned by one of the largest newspaper publishers in the province.) 

The French-language Voir continues. 

A month ago, Hour, the only other English alt weekly, was also shut down. In both cases, the publisher said it was because of an increasingly difficult ad market -- critical to such controlled circulation publications. 

A story in the Montreal Gazette  by Richard Burnett said that the death of the Mirror was essentially inevitable with the closure of its fierce competitor Hour. The Mirror in effect won the war and lost its reason to live. 

Last week also saw a major consolidation of the Montreal newspaper scene, as Transcontinental announced that it was assuming sole ownership of the weekday daily Metro Montreal (previously co-owned with Gesca).