The patience of the National Assembly has reached its limits with Quebecor, which has not paid its rent to the Press Gallery for nine months. In the absence of a “near agreement”, she is preparing a lawsuit “to assert her rights”.
Last August, the media and telecommunications giant stopped writing checks to the Assembly for its journalists’ offices in the André-Laurendeau building. The building houses 52 accredited members of the Press Gallery, responsible for covering parliamentary news in the capital. Among them, a dozen work for Le Journal de Québec, Le Journal de Montréal and the TVA television network, Quebecor media.
In August 2023, the company announced in a letter to the Assembly that it intended to “suspend” the payment of its rent of $8,448 per month. She cited the “serious crisis” in the media due to the web giants, who have monopolized “more than 80% of advertising revenue”.
Since then, the company’s situation “is still not regularized” and the National Assembly “will have to undertake legal procedures to assert its rights”, explains the spokesperson for the National Assembly, Béatrice Zacharie, in a email to The Press.
In January, Quebecor began to vacate part of the premises occupied by its journalists, but the company still rents a small studio where video reports are prepared. Around ten people can work there at the same time: television reporters, technicians and a handful of parliamentary journalists for writing, when the Assembly is in session.
Médias QMI, which brings together Quebecor media, has however not signed a new lease and has not paid its debt.
The National Assembly refused to quantify the amount involved, but the rent revealed in August 2023 allows us to calculate that it reaches more than $50,000 before taxes, not including the cost of its reduced spaces after January.
The room that Quebecor occupies today takes up the equivalent of approximately 20% of the initial space.
Rent reduction
The National Assembly explains that it negotiated with Quebecor without success. The institution explains having lowered rents from 1er April, offering savings “of 6% to 10%”. “Since then, all media outlets have concluded a lease according to this new price list, with the exception of QMI,” writes Béatrice Zacharie. In addition, the National Assembly recalls that its prices are below market prices on Parliament Hill. »
Contacted by The PressQuebecor did not respond to our questions Thursday.
In an email in February, vice-president of communications Véronique Mercier said that the company was still in discussions on this subject. “For months, we have been negotiating with the National Assembly to reduce the cost of rent for the Press Tribune media, in a context where the entire industry is in crisis and it must implement implemented rationalization measures to reduce its operating costs. »
In his letter last August to the Secretary General of the National Assembly, Vice-President for Institutional Affairs Jad Barsoum requested “free” access to all journalists who are members of the Press Tribune, all media combined.
Losses at TVA…
TVA reported Monday revenues down 5% to $6.9 million for the last year and a loss of $17.9 million.
The broadcaster announced a reorganization last fall that included laying off 550 employees, or about a third of its workforce.
Profits at Quebecor
Conversely, its parent company Quebecor delighted investors when it announced its results on Thursday, with a net profit of 167.6 million for the quarter ended March 31, up almost 50% compared to at the same time last year. A performance largely due to the increase in revenues at Videotron and its telecommunications sector.
reference: www.lapresse.ca