La fin du VOIR : Souvenirs impérissables et inquiétude pour la suite…

The relaunch of VOIR magazine, planned for next fall, will ultimately not take place. Already weakened before the pandemic, the cultural media outlet belonging to the Mishmash group officially ceased operations at the end of last week. Unsurprisingly, its demise, announced Friday afternoon, sparked a flurry of deference throughout the weekend on social media, especially in cultural and independent media circles.

Like many other cultural figures, VOIR was my first professional springboard. This was the case over the years for Laurent Saulnier, Nicolas Tittley, Olivier Robillard Laveaux, Eric Parazelli, Christine Fortier, Marie-Hélène Poitras, Philippe Couture, and Manon Dumais. So many people I’ve admired over the years, and who have unwittingly contributed to making me ever more passionate about culture and eager to express myself about it.

In 2004, as a record store owner and communications student at the University of Ottawa, the prestigious dream of seeing my writing about music published in the coolest weekly in Quebec came true. An adventure that would last a little over two years for VOIR Ottawa-Gatineau, under the aegis of Mélissa Proulx, and open the door to a passionate career that I had previously believed impossible. And which almost is, in fact.

At the time, VOIR was doing so well that satellite sections existed in the regions. There was a VOIR Estrie. In Quebec City too, until recently. And in Ottawa-Gatineau. Cultural journalists from the major mainstream media envied the flair of the independent cultural weekly, whose front pages served as trophies and good reviews systematically enhanced the press kits.

For my part, this professional setting allowed me to conduct interviews with artists such as Buck 65, Tom Green, Finger Eleven, Daniel Boucher, David Usher, in addition to highlighting some of the most underrated Franco-Ontarian artists of the time. Not bad for a newcomer.

Funnily enough, it also allowed me to publish articles on the back of the mood columns of a younger Richard Martineau, who is decidedly different from today:

It was a different time!

All this to say that my two years at VOIR allowed me to land a job at the daily newspaper Le Droit and to become a full-time music journalist for two more formative years.

Without my experience at VOIR, I would never have founded Sors-tu.ca in 2010. And Sors-tu.ca would never have co-founded a digital cultural media cooperative like Culture Cible in 2013, with other culture-loving entrepreneurs like colleagues at atuvu.ca , Baronmag.com , Bible urbaine and Le Canal Auditif . This group aims to professionalize cultural blogs, in order to provide the arts community with solid and comprehensive media that bring together communities of culture enthusiasts, eager for discovery and knowledge.

 

And what now?

Some see the disappearance of VOIR as a fatality similar to the death of MusiquePlus in the summer of 2019.

Of course, we all suspected that VOIR’s survival was hanging by a thread.

But if YouTube had destroyed the relevance of a TV channel dedicated to broadcasting music videos, we cannot establish a similar cause to justify the disappearance of VOIR. Funding resources were dwindling. But fundamentally, the relevance of a written cultural medium—whether in a strictly digital and less expensive form, or in a paper format for those nostalgic for the printed object—dedicated to covering Quebec’s cultural activities has never been more essential. Especially for artists who are even slightly alternative.

Its disappearance comes on top of Bande à part, ICI, Hour, Mirror, and MusiquePlus, leaving even fewer options to promote an increasingly flourishing culture. Not to mention that the cultural coverage of several major mainstream media outlets has also been shrinking for years.

Fortunately, there are still a few entities that continue to roll up their sleeves to talk about culture with passion, dedication, and expertise. These structures are much more modest, and often even volunteer. If you are not familiar with them, in addition to the Culture Cible media, I suggest you add the following written media to your « Favorites »: Feu à volonté , Ecoutedonc.ca , 99scenes , and HHQC for hip-hop fans.

That’s still very few. VOIR and Sors-tu.ca sites would need about twenty to adequately serve Quebec’s lush cultural offerings. We’re struggling to get to ten… Don’t ask yourself why competition is a concept that doesn’t exist in this tiny community. When a VOIR disappears, no one rejoices. Everyone gets a cold…

Sooner or later, we will have to seriously question who should be responsible for supporting independent cultural media, before everything goes to hell. Always between two stools—not « news » enough to benefit from media subsidies, but not « artist » enough to enjoy cultural support—cultural media are left to their own devices in a context where, as we know, a business model strictly based on advertising revenue, in competition with digital advertising multinationals, is leading us straight into a wall.

At a time when we’re promoting local shopping with #PanierBleu and #MusiqueBleue, what about our #MédiasBleus? If local cultural media die, there will be no alternative but Google and Facebook, and the absence of independent cultural observers on the ground to talk about artists and their creations will have a detrimental effect on their discoverability by leaving the field completely open to Spotify algorithms and YouTube suggestions.

Artists, producers, broadcasters, festivals and cultural artisans tell us several times a week that cultural media are an essential part of the cultural ecosystem, and they clearly fear their disappearance.

It’s high time that some form of aid was provided to support the modest cultural media infrastructure that remains. Before there are none left…