The Midland Free Press newspaper closed its doors today, June 18, 2013 after more than 130 years in the community. Midland Mayor Gord McKay told CTV Barrie the paper closed this morning. One of its reporters spoke to J-Source, a project to monitor and discuss news and news agencies in Canada by the Canadian Journalism Foundation. The reporter told J-Source the office was packed up the morning it closed, and staff wasn't given much time to leave. The reporter says the paper's last issue will be June 20, 2013. No one from Sun Media head office, the news division that oversees the Free Press, could speak to the closure. Nobody from Quebecor, the media company that owns Sun Media, could be reached for comment. Sun Media has shut down a number of community papers in the last 18 months, including six in December and, recently, the Lindsay Post.
