July 13, 2014
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CANADALAND
#40 THE GRID: no path to profitability
THE GRID may be remembered as the last newspaper ever launched in Canada. The people behind it share their thoughts on whether success was ever even possible.

EPISODE RUNDOWN

0:00 THE GRID closing down (link)

03:32 Lianne George, Editor at THE GRID (link)

03:36 Edward Keenan, Senior Editor at THE GRID (link)

03:41 Denise Balkissoon, Freelancer at THE GRID (link)

03:49 David Topping, Staff Writer & former Associate Editor at THE GRID (link)

03:53 Eric Vellend, Wine Ponce at THE GRID (link)

03:59 David Sax, Contributor at THE GRID (link)

04:49 “I was always expected my keycard would stop working at some point. and you know once and awhile at the top of parking garage, it wouldn’t quite swipe right and I was like thats it I’m laid off.” Topping

05:17 Candice Faktor, General Manager of Wattpad  (link)

06:06 “THE GRID did a really great thing which was made the print product so attractive, that reading it in print was the default best option.” Check out these rad covers (link).

07:16 “I Think it failed on the publishing side if the idea was always to fun it based on print advertising then that was never going to work” Balkissoon

8:43 Burger Week (link)

10:46 “The vast lion’s share of our revenue was coming through the paper. If we had been digital only, we wouldn’t have survived for this long. The outpowering of support we saw for The Grid on Twitter and social media in general after the announcement is evidence that there is an audience looking for good editorial content. There’s money out there, it just seems people haven’t figured out how to put the two things together” George

13:36 “I’m so profoundly disappointed, just as a labourer in this industry because I was being made hopeful…” Keenan

“Anyone who starts (a journalistic venture) now is nuts” Vellend

16:43 “Market leaders like the New York Times or the Toronto Star, with more readers than they’ve ever had in their history, with circulation as high as it’s ever been, gaining market share in the ad market against their competitors, but still losing revenue in gross terms year over year.” Keenan

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