After 19 years in business, Ottawa-based satirical magazine Frank is shutting down.

“It’s time to fold it up. It’s not a business model that works any more,” publisher Michael Bate told CBC News.

He explained that the the magazine is no longer profitable and that with Internet sites nowadays it is now tough to break stories before they find their way out on the Internet.

Bates said:

“There was a time when Frank would break stories and print information you just couldn’t find anywhere else. Those off-the-record stories and stories that used to be among the media or a small political elite, now …are on the internet…We did have subscribers online, but not enough of them.”

According to the Canadian Press “Frank had its heyday during the early 1990s
when circulation was around 16,000 and the magazine was passed from
hand to hand in the national capital.”

efrank.ca and the bimonthly paper edition ceased publishing October 28 and the last paper edition is now on sale at newsstands.