Converting to a non-profit organisation

The conversion to a non-profit organisation was an important part of the transformation, Cardinal argues:
- "It was part of the whole picture. In parallell with our transformation process there were talk in Canada about tax credits. However they didn't want to give tax credits to big, powerful companies like our previous owners Power Corporation or such as Thomson Group, or even a foundation. Instead we made the bet that being a non for profit would help us to get some tax credits and convince government that it was a good idea. With that we could also diversify our revenue, to have to collect donations. It was a big bet at the time because the survival of independent medias weren't still not in question. But we put it on the table. We had some expectations, but today it's way ahead of what we expected. In 2023, we collect, CA$ 8 million (approximately € 5,5 m or $ 6 m) in donations only from readers. So it turns out that people are there to support us even now when we have been profitable for the last four years. It was not about our survival. They are still paying."

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- "One interesting thing is, that according to the research we did before the transformation, 60,000 people said they'd be willing to pay for a subscription to LP+ in the best of all possible worlds. This was not viable for us. And what we're seeing today is that our studies were right: around 60,000 people make contributions.. We knew that, this level of revenue was insufficient to fund the organisation, so we needed advertising as a main source. And today we have about 60 000 donors. So those who were paying for the subscription before, are also paying today and almost the same amount each year. However 75% of our revenues come from advertising still today." Maybe thanks to its bold decision to stop print, CPM-prices of ads in the tablet edition quickly surpassed the corresponding CPM-prices of ads in print.

The unique features of the flagship product

Today La Presse "has a website and, of course, a mobile app. The flagship is still the daily tablet app which today exist for both iPad and Android." and Cardinal continues:
- "The thing that makes the tablet app unique is the fact that it's still a morning daily edition (distributed 5.30 in the morning) with a front page and with sections and games. It's a closed edition, however with more pictures than in print, different designs, interactivity, videos, audio extracts, etc. We say that the tablet app is our flagship because it has the most depth, the best curation, but also the most engagement from readers." 

The mobile is growing in traffic, of course, however there are so much more articles viewed on the tablet. And the engagement level is really the measure of success;
- "It's our North star. To give you an idea, we can have about 50 million pages viewed in a month on the website, 50 million on the mobile app, however 500 million page views each month for the tablet edition. Also the time spent is much monger for the tablet edition, in average, it's 40 minutes on weekdays and in the weekends, it's, 50 minutes. A couple of Saturdays ago, we hit 57 minutes of time spent average. And how does it compare with print? Well, today the tablet edition, is is accessed by 1.5 times more readers than our highest print run in 1970". Cardinal concludes:"That is the measure of success."

In total, La Presse reach 4 million readers each month. In Quebec its universe, there are only 8 million people which means that La Presse reach 60% of Quebec's adult population. "A big part of Quebec".
The Tablet-editions for iPad and Android has a number of unique features. Cardinal describes with enthusiasm: "We offer a lot of, graphic design, videos, graphics, interactivity and so on which makes our storytelling quite compelling. We also win design awards because of those screens. We also have long articles. We didn't stop those. Journalists love them, so we we still have them and readers like them, too. We have a lot of ""explainers" because our graphic team is quite huge."

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The mobile is growing in traffic, of course, however there are so much more articles viewed on the tablet. And the engagement level is really the measure of success;

- "It's our North star. To give you an idea, we can have about 50 million pages viewed in a month on the website, 50 million on the mobile app, however 500 million page views each month for the tablet edition. Also the time spent is much monger for the tablet edition, in average, it's 40 minutes on weekdays and in the weekends, it's, 50 minutes. A couple of Saturdays ago, we hit 57 minutes of time spent average. And how does it compare with print? Well, today the tablet edition, is is accessed by 1.5 times more readers than our highest print run in 1970". Cardinal concludes: "That is the measure of success."

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In total, La Presse reach 4 million readers each month. In Quebec its universe, there are only 8 million people which means that La Presse reach 60% of Quebec's adult population. "A big part of Quebec".

The Tablet-editions for iPad and Android has a number of unique features. Cardinal describes with enthusiasm: "We offer a lot of, graphic design, videos, graphics, interactivity and so on which makes our storytelling quite compelling. We also win design awards because of those screens. We also have long articles. We didn't stop those. Journalists love them, so we we still have them and readers like them, too. We have a lot of ""explainers" because our graphic team is quite

 huge."

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