One way to save a newspaper: cut all the staff, let the unpaid interns run it

Metro, a Toronto daily free newspaper has laid off all of its paid staff, but will still be published with the help of the remaining unpaid interns.

Metro terminated four unionized staff writers last week and two managers, citing economic reasons, according to the Globe and Mail. The paper is owned by Torstar, which also publishes the Toronto Star and Metro International.

The unions representing the staff naturally aren’t very happy, although Torstar defends the decision, saying that the paper would primarily be supplied with news through a number of content partnerships, including content from the Toronto Star, wire services and freelances.

After all, you can’t rely on unpaid interns alone to provide all the content ?

One way to save a newspaper we haven’t seen before.