While I've never religiously read
Dose, I did enjoy Dose for its entertainment value (especially the last page) and for covering topics you might not find in other papers. But unfortunately, today seems to be the last issue of Dose as its owner, CanWest, no longer finds it a viable venture.
"In this very competitive newspaper market, we feel the printed publication will not produce the financial results we expect over the long term," said CanWest MediaWorks CEO Peter Viner in a release.
Well duh, offering anything free is unlikely to be profitable! Ironically, during the past two days at the Mesh Conference we've spent a considerable amount of time talking about whether offering free services, which seems prolific in Web 2.0 companies, is a viable business model. While there have been cases of success, most of us concluded it's very risky and even some of the venture capitalists in attendance said they usually stay away from those companies.
This doesn't mean Dose will cease to exist. It will continue to grow it's online and mobile services which might be good idea considering their target age group is likely to be those who often surf and find their news from the internet. Check out the full
article.
Dose newspaper CanWest mesh06 mesh conference Canada