Your weekly newspaper is changing!

As you may or may not know, our company, Transcontinental Media, manages 61 regional weekly newspapers in Quebec, 22 of which are local newspapers distributed on the Island of Montreal - all with their own Website. We publish 730,000 copies of our newspapers per week for the Montreal area. In fact, we are the only free information media distributed directly to every home on the Island, and, given this positioning, the only one to reach all citizens every week.

The mission of our newspapers has always been as follows: to inform citizens on political, economic, social and sports news, and accurately report the events of the community through effective mass communication. To fully play our role, we must reflect the reality of the Montreal neighbourhoods and cities we cover.

We would be remiss not to admit that our newspapers today do not fully represent all of the cultural diversity that can be found in Montreal. Most of the time, the content of our newspapers is dedicated to news items related to native Quebecers. Since we are THE media whose purpose is to stimulate community life, it is important to make the necessary adjustments so that we may truly reflect the communities we serve.

We are making a commitment here today to become the local voice of ALL residents of the Island of Montreal, and consequently, to open our pages to all cultural communities represented on the territory.

For our society to function on a day-to-day basis, we need a language common to all, so that citizens can discuss and exchange with one another. The vast majority of immigrants understand this and work hard every day to learn the language spoken here.

It is impossible to produce a newspaper that would feature all the world’s languages. In addition, we do not find this to be desirable, since we can and want to play a predominant role in welcoming and integrating members of cultural communities.

In a few weeks, you will therefore find articles presented as usual exclusively in French or English (as the case may be), dealing with news or events about

the cultural communities in your community. In our view, this is a sign of openness toward immigrants, but also a responsible action toward the residents of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

We believe that the most effective way of promoting the rapid and successful integration of immigrants is simply to show an interest in them. New Quebecers come from somewhere, they have values and traditions and they can contribute to enriching our collective cultural life. If all citizens understand their neighbours a bit better, they will want to talk and get to know each other more - all of this can happen through a Quebec identity that remains intact, yet open to the world.

From now on, we will celebrate cultural diversity together every week!