Newspapers Flourish in Montreal : Four Dailies Mold Society, Opinion in Competitive Market

While many North American newspapers are worried about their places in modern society and even their survival, daily print journalism flourishes here, an institution heeded and respected.

To be a reporter in Montreal is to be well paid and well placed, a major player in society and also a molder of society, from politics to business.

With four daily papers, Montreal is one of the most competitive journalistic markets on the continent, and of those four, the most unusual is a paper with relatively few pages and no comics.

Small Circulation

It has fewer subscribers than many small-town U.S. daily newspapers, and it can’t even be read by the overwhelming majority of Canadians, who speak only English. However, Le Devoir is among the most influential journals in Canada, perhaps in North America.

No Quebec politician can afford to let a day pass without a close reading of the French-language daily, and neither can anyone interested in national affairs--not if they hope to understand what is happening in this complicated province.

For Le Devoir, which is marking its 75th anniversary this year, presents some of the most informed and detailed news coverage of any newspaper in North America, and its editorials directly influence both the general public and policy-makers.

“Le Devoir is an institution,” said Anthony Wilson-Smith, the Montreal bureau chief for Canada’s only national newsweekly magazine, MacLean’s. “It is an excellent forum for ideas, a reflector of the changing Quebec.”

Crucial Issues

This power comes from its ability to identify and define the crucial issues of the day and from the incisive quality of its editorials that express a definite point of view without being partisan or divisive.

To someone used to the moderate and generalized approach of most Canadian and American newspapers, Le Devoir is a wonder. It sells only 45,000 copies a day in a city of 3 million and a country of 25 million.

And while a determined effort by publisher Jean-Louis Roy and Editor-in-Chief Lise Bissonnette to modernize the paper brought a slight profit in 1984, Le Devoir faces a continual financial struggle in this competitive market.

The Montreal Gazette, the oldest daily paper in North America, is the last English-language daily in the province and is, according to Editor Mark Harrison, “a determined defender” of Montreal’s non-French-speaking minority.

Secure Future

Even though the Gazette’s circulation has dropped to just over 200,000 daily, most experts say its future is secure, not only because of Montreal’s 600,000 English speakers, but because many Francophones depend on the paper for financial and business news. Altogether, about a quarter of the Gazette’s readers are French speaking.

The largest circulation in the city belongs to Le Journal de Montreal, a moderately sensationalist tabloid with nearly half a million buyers that publishes no editorials but directly influences the city’s large and increasingly active working class.

But the paper with the widest approach is Le Presse, a standard-sized daily which provides Canada’s French-speaking population with its most comprehensive coverage, including international news.

“It has a world view that Le Devoir lacks,” said Wilson-Smith, “and it covers Canada more comprehensively.”

Affected by Strike

Until recently, Le Presse was in trouble. It had been hard hit by a strike, which led to the founding of Le Journal de Montreal, and its middle-of-the-road approach wasn’t attracting readers.

But when Roger D. Landry, a former minor league hockey player and sports executive, was brought in as publisher in the early 1980s, the paper stabilized and now has a daily circulation of about 220,000.

To someone used to the debate and controversy over the function of the press in the United States, as well as the public criticism of the media’s role, it is surprising to note the position of Montreal’s newspapers.

Reporters are very well paid, with scales running from $48,000 a year to upwards of $100,000 for influential columnists and political writers. And beyond their pay, news people are seen as rightful participants in the political process.

Influential Writing

So, when Lise Bissonnette writes in Le Devoir that the government in Quebec City has made a mistake, policy-makers, including provincial officials, pay attention.

For example, she wrote an editorial in March, 1980, attacking a government minister’s disparaging remarks about the wife of an opposition politician in the course of the provincial referendum on independence. The minister’s career, as a result, was ruined, and the campaign for a “yes” vote for Quebec independence was seriously damaged.

“The press is part of the ruling elite that manages society,” said Dominique Clift, a Montreal writer and expert on the press. “As a reporter, you sort of stand on a pedestal. You define the issues.”

Part of this stature results from the European nature of Quebec’s political and cultural society. There is more emphasis on ideas than on action, and intellectuals are often directly involved in the political process.

Social Divisions

In addition, the power of the press, says Clift, reflects the hard social divisions of society here. “Le Devoir represents the upper class, Le Presse speaks for the middle class and the commercial aspects, and Le Journal looks to the underside of Quebec society.”

Although all four Montreal papers seem healthy now, that has not always been the case. Ten years ago, the city had 10 daily papers.

And now, the nature of Quebec’s society seems to be changing, substituting finance for politics as the absorbing concern. So far, all the papers appear aware of this shift. Le Devoir has increased its daily economic coverage and has added a weekly business magazine.

Le Presse has also added pages to its business section, even at the expense of once-untouchable hockey coverage, while Le Journal is clearly aiming at a higher income group.

Of the four papers, the Gazette was the best prepared for this change, if for no other reason than that its readership until recently controlled commerce in Quebec.