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People looking for real local information in Québec City and who want to support workers on strike against Quebecor’s Le Journal de Québec can visit MédiaMatinQuébec.

Visitors can read all the news, photos and ads as well as download a PDF of the strikers’ newspaper.

The launch comes after three and a half months of producing and distributing a 40,000 free circulation newspaper five times per week.

There was a sustained demand for the site, and CUPE members involved hope it will be a new tool to use in their campaign to pressure their employer.

The 280 CUPE members at Le Journal de Québec have been off the job since April 22 after Quebecor forced some employees on strike and locked out the rest.

Meanwhile the newspaper’s profits reached $25 million in 2006 and its weekly circulation increased 7.5% over the last five years.

Workers, understandably, would not accept the rollbacks management demanded.

To make matters worse, the corporation is demanding its journalists produce content for all media in the Quebecor empire. This has also meant generic content - including entire pages from the Journal de Montreal - pasted into the Journal de Quebec.

If what Quebecor calls ‘convergence’ takes hold in Quebec, the consequences for local media could be disastrous. Recall that the company recently bought Osprey Media which owns most of Ontario’s regional dailies and weeklies.