By Hamutal Dotan

Just like blogTO, Torontoist got a tip from one of our readers Thursday morning, alerting us to the imminent disappearance of Toronto Star newspaper boxes around town. And just like the recent spate of National Post newspaper box cutbacks, this had us worried. That newspapers are on their deathbed is a well-worn cliché, promulgated first with the rise of web-based news sites and whose spread accelerated with the economic meltdown that is stripping media outlets of their advertisers. We didn’t want to jump to conclusions, though: the Star is—at least relatively speaking—a strong performer. According to the Newspaper Audience Databank, in 2007 the Toronto Star outperformed all other newspapers in the city: it had 2.1 million weekly readers, compared to 1.2 million for the Toronto Sun, 1 million for The Globe and Mail, and 500,000 for the National Post.
Newspapers often stop servicing boxes that fare poorly, preferring to retain only those locations which have brisk sales. Many of the Star’s soon-to-be-discontinued boxes, however, are on busy intersections with lots of foot traffic: Yonge and Eglinton, Church and Gould, College and Robert, Yonge and King, Queen and Duncan. While we are not privy to Toronto Star’s sales figures, these aren’t obvious candidates for lower-than-average performance. We tried to contact the heads of both the circulation and marketing departments of the Star; unfortunately, none of our messages have been returned as of yet. A customer service representative did tell us that boxes were being pulled only because of poor sales, and not as part of a concerted strategy to cut back service. While we certainly hope that this is the case, it is also a little worrisome in its own right: if a newspaper box at Yonge and King isn’t selling out, times may be even tougher than we thought.
Photo of newspaper box at Yonge and Eglinton by Jamie Bradburn/Torontoist.