Cult MTL experiments with print version

The July 4 issue

The doughty band of laid-off staff and contributors to the Montreal alt-weekly Mirror have now reached the one year mark since they started to build, from the ground up (and without investors) a new publication called Cult MTL. It started as a website after Quebecor Media closed the Mirror, but has evolved to where the website has as its companion a twice-monthly print version. It's an experiment through this month, August and September, according to a story in the Montreal Gazette.

“Conventional wisdom is that young people aren’t into print, but we found that wasn’t the case,” says editor-in-chief Lorraine Carpenter. “That was surprising.” 

Carpenter [who's also the music editor] hauls half the 10,000-copy load to drop-off points around the city every month. It takes days to distribute, and still the paper is hard to find sometimes, but handling distribution in-house makes it more responsive to complaints and suggestions, Carpenter said.

“Ever since we launched our first print issue, I think the response was so encouraging that it’s hard not to be increasingly optimistic, says managing editor Lucas Wisenthal.”

The publication is celebrating its first anniversary with a BBQ on Saturday 20th at 2 p.m. at Le Labo Culinaire Foodlab at Société des arts technologiques [SAT], 1201, Boul. Saint-Laurent, Montreal.