It looks like the last print edition of Toronto’s NOW Magazine has hit the streets

NOW Magazine, Toronto’s alternative weekly, has been struggling for the last couple of years. It’s been caught in the same downdraft that is hurting Vancouver’s Georgia Straight (both publications have the same owner) and the venerable Village Voice.

Stories have been circulating that staff has been putting in unpaid time for months in an effort to keep things afloat. And while things will continue online, the last print edition–one focusing on TIFF–hit the street.

NOW is not dead. It will live on for as long as possible online. However, the millions of people who grew up grabbing a copy while enjoying a slice or a bowl of poutine will sorely miss it.

At its height, NOW had a weekly circulation of 100,000 print copies a week. And who knows how many people browsed through each copy? In recent years, though, circulation has dropped to somewhere between 10,000 and 25,000. Its disappearance will be felt by the city’s arts and music community.