A pair of media companies has joined forces to provide extended digital news coverage across Northern Ontario.
Sudbury-based Laurentian Publishing (owner of Northern Ontario Business) and Village Media of Sault Ste. Marie have entered a partnership that brings together its online platforms. Laurentian Publishing operates northernlife.ca, while Village Media operates Sootoday.com and Local2.ca in Sault Ste. Marie, Baytoday.ca in North Bay, and Timminstoday.com in Timmins.
Michael Atkins, president of Laurentian Publishing, said combining the sales, technical and marketing expertise of Village Media with the editorial influence of Northern Life is a good fit that would benefit consumers of news across the region and allow advertisers a powerful vehicle to promote their products and services to a huge media following.
It’s a drastic change from 40 years ago when he started in the media industry, when communications were still largely centred out of Toronto.
“As we come into the digital age, which is a very different time — and it’s not what I signed up for 40 years ago with Northern Life — it really is exciting because it brings us together in different ways,” he said. “There’s no better way than to move forward in partnership with people that you trust and that you care about.”
Jeff Elgie, president of Village Media, said it’s been a vision for the company to operate a “significant news presence” across Northern Ontario, and this partnership now makes it a reality. Although the company typically prefers to enter new markets alone, Elgie said he felt “honoured to work alongside experienced publishers that I know operate with integrity and discipline.”
“Combined, our sites will now deliver over 17 million page impressions per month and over 115,000 site visits per day to a primarily Northern Ontario audience,” Elgie said.
“For an advertiser, this means one-stop shop access to a very targeted audience in Northern Ontario, and for our viewers this means continued enhancement of quality content, most relevant not only to our local communities, but to our overall Northern community as well.”
In addition to Northern Life and Northern Ontario Business, Laurentian Publishing owns the Sudbury Living Magazine Group, Northern Ontario Medical Journal and Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal, as well an events division that presents the Northern Ontario Business Awards, Influential Women of Northern Ontario, and the Community Builders Awards, among other events.
Village Media network of news sites delivers more than 17.5 million page impressions, and delivers some of the largest digital news sites in each of the communities in which it operates.
