The owner of Quebec害羞草研究所檚 main flyer distributor announced on Friday it will end the 45-year-old service, forcing more than 50 beleaguered local newspapers to rethink their strategy as well.

Starting in May, the Montreal-based packaging and printing company TC Transcontinental plans to scrap the flyer bundles, known in Quebec as Publisac 害羞草研究所� distributed to 2.5 million households outside the city as part of a shift to a thin leaflet delivered by Canada Post.

Weekly newspapers across the province have depended on the door-to-door Publisac service to bring local news to Quebecers害羞草研究所� doorsteps, packaged in a plastic bag alongside grocery store flyers.

Renel Bouchard, president of Icim茅dias, which owns more than 20 print and online papers across the province, says he now aims to overhaul the company害羞草研究所檚 distribution plan by delivering editions to select drop-off points 害羞草研究所� such as local businesses and nursing homes 害羞草研究所� rather than houses.

Nonetheless, Bouchard remained upbeat.

害羞草研究所淎ccording to our figures, 60 to 65 per cent of copies delivered to homes are actually read, whereas at a drop-off point almost 100 per cent of copies will be taken by people who want to read them,害羞草研究所� he said in a release.

Some weeklies in the U.S. have also found success with the drop-off point model, he added, citing an unnamed paper in Burlington, Vt. with a circulation of 30,000.

Publisac suffered a major blow earlier this year after Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante said flyers would be delivered only to residents who request them, marking a win for environmentalists and prompting criticism from TC Transcontinental.

The move also became the last straw for M茅tro M茅dia, which declared bankruptcy in September, permanently ending hyperlocal coverage by its more than 30 publications in the province害羞草研究所檚 two largest cities.

TC Transcontinental said its new leaflet, dubbed Raddar and already in circulation to one million households in the Montreal area, will greatly reduce the volume of paper used and include a digital version.

害羞草研究所淎t the same time, we regret the impact of the end of Publisac on several weekly newspapers as well as on our distribution partners害羞草研究所� 害羞草研究所� the company has 140 害羞草研究所� said Patrick Brayley, a vice-president at TC Transcontinental, in a release.

害羞草研究所淕iven recent and expected regulatory changes for distribution and their operational and financial impacts, the Publisac model had to evolve.害羞草研究所�

In Quebec, Raddar will be rolled out between February and May.

Starting next week in Ontario, the leaflets will land outside one million doors in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area formerly served by community newspaper publisher Metroland Media Group.

In September, Metroland 害羞草研究所� unrelated to M茅tro M茅dia 害羞草研究所� announced it would seek bankruptcy protection and shift to an online-only model as one of the country害羞草研究所檚 largest media conglomerates shut down community news titles. The move meant nearly 70 local papers were lost in Ontario and more than 600 employees lost their jobs.

TC Transcontinental said the Raddar pamphlets will also reach more than 300,000 households in the Vancouver area, where Glacier Media, a large Western Canadian community newspaper publisher, has shuttered news outlets, on top of closures in some other parts of British Columbia.

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press