If you’re concerned about the erosion of the local media landscape, then this probably won’t be the best news you’ll hear this week. The Kitchener Post, a weekly newspaper that has been publishing in Kitchener since 2011, will be eliminating its print publication at the end of the month and will be going all digital.

In a post on their website, the Kitchener Post announced that the August 29 would be the final print edition of the paper saying that “the decline in print advertising in recent years has made it difficult to publish the print edition at a profitable level,” adding that they did not make the decision “lightly.”

The good news is that the Post will still be publishing the news after August 29, but it will now follow the lead of so many papers by becoming an online-only initiative.

“Our commitment to delivering unique local content and tell stories of the residents who live here will continue,” said Ian Oliver, executive vice-president of Torstar Corporation and president of Community Brands and Operations. “Our online edition will continue to provide a variety of coverage featuring local news, arts and events as well as photos featuring people who make Kitchener a great place to live and work.”

The Kitchener Post, like our own Guelph Mercury Tribune, is owned by the Metroland Media Group, a subsidiary of TorStar, which, of course, operates the Toronto Star. 

Metroland still has two other weekly papers in the tri-cities, the Waterloo Chronicle and the Cambridge Times, as well as the daily Waterloo Region Record. The Cambridge Times, like the Tribune, was published twice-a-week until last December when Metroland announced that they were going down to a once-per-week publishing schedule to focus on daily online news.