About Le Manic

Le Manic

Overview

Le Manic is a free French-language weekly newspaper serving Baie-Comeau and the municipalities of the Manicouagan peninsula on Quebec's Côte-Nord. Published by Les Éditions Nordiques of Baie-Comeau, it appears in print on Wednesdays and describes itself, in its own directory wording, as a weekly "distribué gratuitement à près de 16 000 exemplaires dans les municipalités de la Péninsule de Manicouagan, dans la ville de Baie-Comeau et dans les secteurs des Panoramas" — distributed free at nearly 16,000 copies across the peninsula's municipalities, the city of Baie-Comeau and the Panoramas districts. It is one of the three principal local media of the Côte-Nord, alongside its sister weeklies Haute-Côte-Nord and Le Nord-Côtier, in a region where the nearest daily newspaper is hundreds of kilometres away. Its newsroom covers municipal government, industry, public services, community life and sport in a territory defined by the Manicouagan river, its hydroelectric installations and the aluminum and forestry industries of Baie-Comeau.

History

Le Manic is a Brisson family creation: every masthead the paper has published credits Paul Brisson and Luc Brisson as its founders, with Paul Brisson styled "éditeur fondateur" in the paper's early editions. Complete print editions archived online run from January 2010 onward, with Simon Brisson and Luc Brisson listed as the paper's editors in 2010 and 2011, news direction under Steeve Paradis, printing by Progrès du Saguenay and a total print run of 15,963 copies. The paper grew inside the family's Baie-Comeau press group — styled Groupe de presse Nord-Côtier on its 2016 mastheads and Les Éditions Nordiques thereafter — which also publishes Haute-Côte-Nord and Le Nord-Côtier along the north shore of the St. Lawrence. A June 2016 masthead shows the operation at maturity: Simon Brisson as the paper's editor, a print run of 16,425 copies, Wednesday distribution and a full local staff of journalists, sales representatives and production workers at 770 rue de Bretagne in Baie-Comeau. The paper described itself in the 2010s, in remarks its president made about the group's independence, as part of an independent regional press group at a time when most Quebec weeklies belonged to national chains. Mastheads through the 2020s show the title's continuity under changing personnel: by 2021 the print run stood at 16,310 copies with printing moved to Québecor Média, and by February 2023 the editor was Martin Thomas, with Johannie Gaudreault as news director and a reporting team including Charlotte Paquet, Colombe Jourdain and Karianne Nepton-Philippe. The September 2024 edition, a 56-page issue, printed 15,660 copies and carried the paper's ISSN registrations, 2817-6022 for print and 2817-6030 online. In February 2025 the group expanded eastward, acquiring the Bas-Saint-Laurent and Gaspésie weeklies of Médialo through Publications Le Soir, and in 2026 Le Manic was named by Le Soleil among the three Côte-Nord weeklies — Haute-Côte-Nord, Manic and Nord-Côtier — that the group distributes from Tadoussac to Havre-Saint-Pierre.

Programming and Content

Le Manic is a general-interest community weekly. Its reporting covers Baie-Comeau city council and the municipal governments of the peninsula — Ragueneau, Chute-aux-Outardes, Pointe-aux-Outardes, Pointe-Lebel, Franquelin, Godbout and Baie-Trinité among them — together with the MRC de Manicouagan, the region's health and education institutions, its industrial economy and its roads. Its journalists' recent work includes municipal election coverage across the Manicouagan in the autumn of 2025, reporting on a candidates' debate for the Baie-Comeau mayoralty, and day-to-day coverage of collisions, police operations and public works on boulevard Laflèche and the Route 138 corridor. Editions run to substantial page counts — the September 2024 issue reached 56 pages — combining news, features, sports, community announcements, municipal public notices, which Quebec municipalities are required to publish, and extensive local advertising from regional businesses. Journalists work across the group's Côte-Nord titles: the paper's reporters also file to Le Nord-Côtier and to Le Charlevoisien, the group's digital-only Charlevoix title, giving the Baie-Comeau newsroom a regional brief beyond its own peninsula. The paper is produced with support acknowledged on its masthead from the Government of Canada, as is common for Canadian community newspapers.

Audience and Reach

Le Manic is distributed free each week by a network of carriers across the Manicouagan peninsula, a delivery operation its mastheads describe with some pride, thanking readers for their patience with the carriers who work "beau temps, mauvais temps" — in all weather. Print runs documented on the paper's own mastheads have ranged between roughly 15,660 and 16,425 copies over the past decade: 15,963 in 2011, 16,425 in 2016, 16,310 in 2021 and 15,660 in 2023 and 2024. In the Centre d'études sur les médias' 2023 compilation of Quebec weekly ownership, Éditions Nordiques accounted for four print titles with a combined print run of 53,890 copies. The MRC de Manicouagan's own guide for newcomers, published in January 2025, lists Le Manic among the region's media and notes that it is published "tous les mardis ou mercredis selon le secteur" — Tuesdays or Wednesdays depending on the sector. The group's August 2024 digital media kit, citing the publisher's own Google Analytics figures, credited Le Manic's website with more than 83,000 unique visitors and some 252,900 page views a month, over 3,900 newsletter subscribers and more than 16,000 social media followers — the publisher's own figures, presented as such.

Digital Presence

The paper's website is lemanic.ca, carrying its current news reporting, and its print editions are archived as page-by-page replicas on the FlipHTML5 platform, where complete issues from 2010 onward can be read — an unusually deep public archive for a community weekly. Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec's listing of online newspapers carries Le Manic among the titles available on BAnQ numérique from 2012. The paper maintains a Facebook presence under the name LeManicJournal, and its journalism circulates through the group's shared platforms: in September 2026 the MRC de Manicouagan announced the launch by Éditions Nordiques of Événements Côte-Nord, a regional platform for promoting activities and events, naming Le Manic among the three principal local media of the Côte-Nord behind it. Stories from lemanic.ca continue to be picked up and credited by other Quebec outlets in the autumn of 2026.

Ownership and Organisation

Le Manic is published by Les Éditions Nordiques, the independent Baie-Comeau press group founded and led by the Brisson family. The group's president is Simon Brisson; Sylvain Desmeules is its vice-president for information, and Caroline Gagnon has served as vice-president for finance and administration. The paper itself was founded by Paul Brisson and Luc Brisson, who remain credited as founders on its masthead; its editor in the mid-2010s was Simon Brisson, and by 2023 the editor's role was held by Martin Thomas, who in 2026 also serves as editor of the group's Événements Côte-Nord platform. The newsroom's director of information in 2023 and 2024 was Johannie Gaudreault, working with journalists including Karianne Nepton-Philippe, Anne-Sophie Paquet and Charlotte Vuillemin. The group reports eighteen journalists across its publications. Éditions Nordiques is headquartered in Baie-Comeau, at 965 rue de Parfondeval since the mid-2020s, having previously operated from 770 rue de Bretagne; its other titles include Haute-Côte-Nord, Le Nord-Côtier and the Charlevoix publications, and since 2025 the Publications gaspésiennes weeklies of the Bas-Saint-Laurent and Gaspésie. The paper has been printed in recent years by Québecor Média, after an earlier period printed by Progrès du Saguenay.

Contact and Availability

Le Manic's newsroom is at 1001 boulevard Laflèche, second floor, Baie-Comeau, Quebec, G5C 1C8, as printed on its 2024 masthead, and the Éditions Nordiques head office is at 965 rue de Parfondeval, Baie-Comeau, G5C 2W8. The paper can be reached by telephone at 418 589-2090 and the group at 418 589-9990; the paper's published email address is journal@lemanic.ca, and its website is www.lemanic.ca. The free print edition appears on Wednesdays, with delivery on Tuesdays or Wednesdays depending on the sector, and current and back editions can be read online through the website and the paper's digital replica archive.