By Connor MacEachern

ANTIGONISH, NS -- The Atlantic Catholic will cease publication after its Aug. 21 issue.
In eight years, the paper – a publication of the Casket Printing and Publishing Co. (2006) Ltd. – failed to increase its readership, board of directors chair Vince MacLean said.
“We were still not breaking even on the paper,” he added. “The decision was made that if there wasn’t enough support in Atlantic Canada and, in particular, eastern Nova Scotia, to support the newspaper, then we’d have to stop publication.”
The biweekly paper has a final circulation of about 1,280. The Atlantic Catholic grew from the Casket as the Antigonish paper became more focused on the local community, MacLean said.
“We continued to pursue that objective and we thought if we were going to do religious news, we thought there was a niche for a Catholic newspaper.”
The Casket will not absorb religious coverage from the Atlantic Catholic, he added.
Two positions – one part-time and one contract – will be eliminated, Atlantic Catholic editor Brian Lazzuri said.
A letter from Lazzuri appears in the latest edition of the Atlantic Catholic.
“Getting people to read a religious newspaper in this day and age has been a great challenge,” he wrote. “People … don’t read much printed word anymore. And when that printed word has to do with spreading the Word of God, telling stories about the many facets of faith in our local parishes and offering resources of information on the Catholic Church, the task was that much more difficult.”
Subscribers will be refunded for the remaining issues, he added.
The Diocese of Antigonish is the majority share-holder in the Casket Printing and Publishing Co. (2006) Ltd., and is in the process of selling all properties except occupied churches and rectories. The Diocese must raise more than $15 million to pay for a legal settlement and other lawsuits related to the sexual abuse of children by clergy. MacLean said the decision to end the Atlantic Catholic was not related to the Diocese’s legal issues.
“It just finally came to a situation where the board thought after seven years we had given it a fair shot,” he said.
“If we had gotten the circulation up and the interest up, then we certainly would have continued.”
Other Catholic publications could expand coverage to include Atlantic Canada, MacLean said.
“If some organization wants to take it over, or if one of the other Catholic papers wants to pick up our readership list … we would make arrangements with the people who had subscriptions, [to see] if they would be interested.”
The company will save money when the Atlantic Catholic ends publication, MacLean said.
“It’s positive for the Casket, but that certainly wasn’t our first objective,” he added.
“We were committed to continuing publication if we were doing good.”