CASE STUDY
Coopérative nationale de l'information indépendante (CN2i)
A newspaper co-operative doomed to succeed*

The rise of international media and digital platforms is bringing important changes to the print media industry. Changing the way information is shared and capturing a growing share of advertising revenues, local media, who were previously the sole recipients of advertising revenues and audience, are struggling to survive.

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By August 2019, Groupe Capitales Médias, a newspaper conglomerate in Quebec, announced its intention to file for protection under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. Given GCM’s national scope, the multiple jobs at stake, and its role in protecting access to regional information, the bankruptcy trustee in charge of running the newspapers – following bankruptcy filing from Groupes Capitales Médias Inc.’s shareholders – remained sensitive to the situation. With the assistance of several Quebec support entities, on December 23, 2019, Groupe Capitales Médias announced they were selling their six regional newspapers to a new entity: the Coopérative nationale de l’information indépendante (CN2i), a producer co-operative made of the six regional newspapers which had all themselves converted into a multi-stakeholder co-operative.

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*Case study research and writing by Claude-André Guillotte and Étienne Fouquet (2021)