The Toronto Star will lay off 55 employees and is making plans to out-source what is known in the newspaper business as page production. This process involves the fabrication of the plates bearing the information from which the newspaper pages are printed. The layoffs come as no particular surprise with the Star, like newspapers everywhere, facing a revenue squeeze caused by the Internet revolution. Those who follow the economics of newspapers will understand that the flight of paid classified advertising to cyber platforms where it is published free, sinking subscription revenues and the many alternatives for display advertisers are threatening the very existence of large daily papers.
