Le Droit goes digital after more than a century in print
After more than 100 years in print, Le Droit, a prominent French-language newspaper serving the Ottawa-Gatineau region, has published its last physical edition.
The final paper rolled off the presses Saturday, marking the last step in Le Droit's gradual transition to a digital publication. The paper had already switched in 2020 from printing six times a week to once a week on Saturdays.
According to editor-in-chief Marie-Claude Lortie, the decision to go exclusively online has been a long time coming.
"When I joined Le Droit [in 2021], it was already decided. The question wasn't, 'Are we going to stop?' It was when," she told Radio-Canada's Les matins d'ici.
Though some readers will be disappointed, the transition is "a necessary change from an environmental [and] financial perspective," Lortie said in the French-language interview.
The once-daily paper had already gone mostly online, publishing print editions only on Saturdays since 2020. (Maxime Huard/Radio-Canada )
In 2019, Le Droit's future was left uncertain after newspaper chain Groupe Capitale Médias, which owned it and five other Quebec newspapers, filed for bankruptcy.
According to Lortie, Le Droit joins those papers, now employee co-operatives, in making the move online.
"Personally, I don't see it as a time to mourn. I see it more as an evolution," said Pierre Bergeron, a retired Le Droit editor, in a French-language interview with Radio-Canada.
"I may be a little light-hearted in that regard, but I tell myself that journalists will find a way to do their jobs."
Lortie called the final 88-page edition a special one, dedicated to remembering the paper's impact in the community and filled with stories by writers and readers alike.
