About Voir

Voir

Voir is Montreal's French-language cultural publication — the free alternative weekly that chronicled Quebec's cultural life from November 1986, founded by Pierre Paquet, and the brand behind a network of regional editions across Quebec. After a storied print run — weekly, then biweekly, then a monthly magazine — and a 2020 shutdown of the print operation, the Voir brand continues online: as of 2026, voir.ca publishes French-language cultural journalism covering music, cinema, restaurants, theatre and books. It is the historic voice of Montreal's cultural scene.

Overview

For more than three decades, Voir was the bible of Montreal's cultural life: the free weekly picked up in cafés, bars, venues and metro stations, the guide to the city's music, film, theatre, dance, visual arts, books and restaurants. In the Montreal of the late 1980s and 1990s — the referendum years, the rise of the francophone rock scene, the Just for Laughs and Jazz Festival boom — Voir was the paper that told the young city where to go and what to see. Its covers were the cultural calendar; its critics the arbiters of cool. For a generation of Montrealers, Thursday meant the new Voir: the weekend planned around its listings, the opinions formed around its reviews. Founded in November 1986 by Pierre Paquet — the first issue dated November 27, 1986 — it grew into a network: Voir Montréal, Voir Québec, Voir Gatineau/Ottawa, Voir Estrie, and for a time Voir Saguenay/Alma and Voir Mauricie.

Voir's distinction was its cultural authority: the reviews, the interviews, the listings that shaped what Montreal saw, heard and ate. Its journalists — the critics, the columnists, the photographers — were the city's cultural chroniclers. At its monthly-magazine peak, it printed 230,000 copies — distributed on the first Thursdays of the month, the free cultural magazine of the francophone city. The monthly format, launched in 2016 after the XPND Capital acquisition, was the paper's adaptation to the advertising collapse: fewer issues, glossier presentation, the cultural content repackaged for the magazine rack. When Mishmash Média ended the monthly print in February 2019, it was the end of paper — but the brand's digital afterlife was already underway.

History

Voir was founded by Pierre Paquet in November 1986 — the free francophone cultural weekly for a Montreal in the midst of a cultural boom. Paquet, who would lead the paper for nearly 30 years as founder, owner and president, built the alternative-weekly model in French: free distribution, cultural coverage, the young urban readership the dailies weren't serving. The paper's growth into a provincial network — six French weeklies at its height — made Communications Voir one of Quebec's significant independent publishers. The first issue appeared November 27, 1986. The paper grew rapidly, developing local editions with targeted content across Quebec: Montreal, Quebec City, Gatineau/Ottawa, Sherbrooke (Estrie), Saguenay/Alma, Trois-Rivières (Mauricie).

In 2013, the paper dropped from weekly to biweekly publication — the advertising decline that was hollowing out weeklies everywhere finally reaching the cultural press. The regional network contracted too: the Saguenay/Alma and Mauricie editions had already ceased on May 3, 2012, the same day the English weeklies Hour Community and xPress closed. On April 29, 2015, Paquet's shares were purchased by a group composed of XPND Capital, the Quebec private equity firm, and two members of Voir's management, Michel Fortin and Hugues Mailhot. Starting in 2016, it published as a free monthly magazine. In February 2019, the owners, Mishmash Média, discontinued the monthly print edition to concentrate on the digital edition. In 2020, the publication ceased — the end of the print Voir.

The parent company, Communications Voir, had published six French weeklies and two English weeklies. The English titles — Montreal's Hour Community (the anglophone counterpart to Voir, 60,000 weekly circulation in 2006, direct competitor of the Montreal Mirror) and Ottawa's xPress — were discontinued in May 2012, along with the Saguenay and Mauricie French editions.

The brand proved durable: voir.ca continues as a digital cultural publication — the name, the cultural authority, the audience, carried forward online. The television extension had already shown the brand's reach: from September 2009 to March 2014, Télé-Québec aired Voir, the TV version of the paper, hosted by Sébastien Diaz with the paper's journalists delivering the week's cultural review — debates, interviews, performances, criticism. At the 2011 Gémeaux awards, the magazine Voir won best cultural and service program: the alternative weekly as television, the cultural authority across media. As of October 2026, the site publishes fresh French-language cultural content — music, cinema, restaurants, theatre, books — carrying the Voir name into the digital era.

Content

Voir's content is cultural journalism in French: music coverage — the interviews, the reviews, the scene reports; cinema — the reviews, the festival coverage; restaurants and gastronomy; theatre and dance; visual arts; books; and the tours passing through Quebec. The site's tagline: musique, cinéma, resto, théâtre, livres.

The historic paper's content set the template: day-to-day cultural news, the society pages, the listings that made it the city's guide. Its music section — the interviews, the scene reports, the reviews — covered the francophone rock explosion and the indie scenes; its cinema pages the festivals and the art houses; its restaurant coverage the city's tables; its theatre and dance pages the stages. The paper's journalists became cultural figures in their own right: the critics whose bylines carried weight, the editors who shaped the conversation. Its critics shaped reputations; its covers marked the cultural moments.

Coverage and Audience

Voir serves francophone Quebec — historically Montreal and Quebec City, with regional editions across the province: Gatineau/Ottawa, the Estrie, and for a time the Saguenay and the Mauricie. The network model — one brand, local editions with targeted content — made Voir the province's cultural paper: the Montreal edition for the metropolis, the Québec edition for the capital, the regional editions for their cities. Each edition carried the national cultural coverage plus the local scene: the venues, the festivals, the restaurants of its city. Its audience is the cultural consumer: the concert-goers, the film buffs, the food lovers, the young urban francophones — the demographic that has always been Voir's: the students, the artists, the nightlife, the creative class. The free-distribution model — the boxes on the street, the stacks in the cafés — was built for them: the paper you pick up on the way to the show.

At its monthly peak, 230,000 copies were distributed on the first Thursdays of the month. The digital edition carries that audience online: the cultural news, the reviews, the guides.

Ownership

Voir was founded by Pierre Paquet (1986–2015), then owned by XPND Capital with managers Michel Fortin and Hugues Mailhot (2015–2019), then Mishmash Média (2019–2020). The current operator of the voir.ca digital publication is not publicly confirmed. Editor-in-chief of the historic publication was Simon Jodoin.

Digital Presence

Voir publishes digitally at voir.ca — French-language cultural journalism: music, cinema, restaurants, theatre, books. The site's ISSN-registered brand (0849-5920) carries nearly 40 years of cultural authority into the digital present.

As of 2026, Voir continues — the 1986 alternative weekly reborn as a digital cultural publication, still covering the culture of Montreal and Quebec, still free, still in French. From the November 27, 1986 first issue to the biweekly years, from the monthly magazine to the digital present, the Voir name has meant one thing for four decades: the culture, in French, for the city that makes it.