Olive Media to Cease Operations on Jan. 1, 2016

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Sept. 16, 2015) - The Toronto Star and La Presse announced today they will assume responsibility for all digital advertising sales of thestar.com and lapresse.ca respectively, effective January 1, 2016.

The move will allow both the Toronto Star and La Presse to consolidate and reposition their digital advertising businesses, allowing them to better serve advertisers by providing enhanced opportunities to cross-sell and bundle their media properties.

As a result, Square Victoria Digital Properties (La Presse) and Star Media Group (Toronto Star) will cease operations of Olive Media, their joint venture. The decision means Olive Media, which has operated as a partnership since January, 2007, will cease to operate as a stand-alone organization starting January 1, 2016.

La Presse and Star Metro Media, a division of Star Media Group that handles advertising sales for the Toronto Star will be absorbing some of the operational staff and technology in Montreal and Toronto in order to continue providing the excellent level of service that advertisers have come to expect when advertising on lapresse.ca and thestar.com.

Olive Media's remaining partners and products will be transitioned to those partners' in-house sales teams.

"This is the natural progression of our digital strategy," said Pierre-Elliott Levasseur, COO of La Presse. "With the continued innovation of the La Presse digital platforms, it now becomes strategically necessary to assume responsibility for all our digital advertising sales in-house. This move enables accelerated innovation of our advertising products across all platforms."

"This is an important step forward in our business strategy," said John Cruickshank, Publisher of the Toronto Star and President of Star Media Group. "It means we will be able to continue to provide the same excellent service to our advertisers and allow them to purchase media across all Star Media Group brands and platforms from a single, dedicated sales force."

Olive Media, which has offices in Toronto and Montreal, is a digital marketing solutions provider, allowing publishers and partners the opportunity to maximize their Canadian online advertising revenues through exclusive Canadian market representation.

Olive Media is a partnership between Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd. and Square Victoria Digital Properties Inc., a subsidiary of Power Corporation, which also owns La Presse through its subsidiary Groupe Gesca.

The change will affect about 70 employees in Toronto and 12 employees in Montreal. Some Toronto employees will be absorbed by Star Metro Media and the entire Montreal staff will be absorbed by La Presse.

About the Toronto Star, thestar.com and Star Touch

The Toronto Star, founded in 1892, is read in print and online (thestar.com) by approximately 3 million readers every week. Star Touch, its free and innovative digital edition for tablets, provides a fully interactive news and information experience for English-language readers. The Toronto Star is a division of Star Media Group, which includes Toronto.com, Torstar Syndication Services and The Kit, a fashion and beauty publication. Star Media Group also includes the Metro free daily newspapers in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax and Winnipeg and the jointly-owned Chinese language newspaper Sing Tao. Star Media Group is a division of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, which is a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation (TSX:TS.B).

About Square Victoria Digital Properties

Square Victoria Digital Properties (SVDP) is particularly active in the digital space, most notably through its interest Olive Media, a Canadian online advertising network. SVDP is held by Square Victoria Communications Group, a subsidiary of Power Corporation of Canada (TSX:POW).

About La Presse

La Presse, Canada's French-language news medium of record, is distributed on several platforms, including a digital edition for tablets, mobile applications, the Web and paper. Its content features distinctive, rich and diversified coverage of news and current events. The recipient of numerous awards for the quality of its content and its design, La Presse is also known for its in-depth series and special reports, as well as for the large amount of space it devotes to discussion and debate. La Presse+, its free digital edition, fully leverages the multi-function capabilities of iPad and Android tablets to deliver the most comprehensive news and information experience ever from Quebec's largest newsroom. La Presse is owned by Groupe Gesca, a subsidiary of Power Corporation of Canada.