TorStar to start delivering coffee

Posted on: 2016-09-16 2:52 PM

After a difficult summer that saw the newspaper lay off more than 50 employees and reveal that it posted a $24.3 million loss in the second quarter of 2016, the Toronto Star is hoping to capitalize on a traditional morning routine to change its fortunes.
 
On Monday, the country’s second-most read daily newspaper announced that it is launching a new service called Headline Coffee, which brings its readers in the Greater Toronto Area “high-quality, ethically-sourced ground or whole-bean coffee,” each month at the cost of $20.
 
“Toronto residents love their coffee and they love reading the news,” states the press release.
 
“Now, the Toronto Star is matching coffee lovers and one of their favourite pastimes with the launch of Headline Coffee."
 
The newspapers said 75 per cent of its readers enjoy a cup of a coffee while enjoying the Star's content.
 
The service promises to bring its users a new coffee from a different part of the world each month.
 
The Star is likely looking to capitalize on Canadian’s coffee culture.
 
According to a study released earlier this month by global marketing research company Euromonitor, Canucks trail only the Netherlands and Finland in terms of litres of java consumed per capita.
 
The venture from the Star comes on the heels of the announcement in August that it was slashing its ranks by 52 jobs.
 
It also revealed in July that it posted a $24.3 million loss in Q2, in part because of costs related to the shuttering of its printing plant in Vaughan, Ont.
 
The newspaper industry in Canada has been struggling as a whole, as readership has migrated online and advertising revenues have dwindled.
 
Research has shown that daily paid circulation as a percentage of Canadian households has dropped from just under 50 per cent in 1995 to 20 per cent in 2014.
 
Meanwhile, the Star saw its average weekday paid circulation drop from 237,141 in 2014 to 192,084, according to Newspapers Canada.
 
Some experts have even predicted that there will be “few, if any, printed daily newspapers” in Canada by 2025.