Torstar will be outsourcing several of its printing functions soon and will be selling off the remainder of its printing unit. The owner will be outsourcing operations for several titles to the company called Transcontinental Inc. The decision has reportedly been prompted by a harder news media environment for companies. 

The deal has already been announced and this will cover printing the 49 community publications and two daily newspapers under the Metroland Media Group banner, which is under Torstar Corp. The company stated that the decision was a hard one and as spurred by the economic hurdles of the industry at present. It has not stated anything on whether this decision will lead to any future layoffs going forward. Many staff members will also be coming on-board at Transcontinental. 

The company’s printing unit at Toronto was sold for around $16.5 million sometime earlier to a holding entity named Tempo Vic Corp. The transaction will be closed soon as per reports. The printing will be moved to the new facility over the next few months and the company will not possess any printing operations on its own thereafter. Torstar has already contracted out a major chunk of printing to Transcontinental and the plant at Vaughan, Ontario, was closed in 2016. 

The agreement also includes printing two additional daily newspapers including the iconic Toronto Star and four more community publications till end-2027. This is one of the biggest moves at the company after total control was taken over by owner Jordan Bitove in November last year. He purchased the newspaper publisher with his ex-business partner Paul Rivett back in 2020. However, their relationship swiftly went from bad to worse, majorly over cutting costs and also regarding the best places to deploy investments.