When Gord Spittal worked as a carrier representative back in 1976, The North York Mirror community newspaper was distributed by Metrospan Publishing.
"We were a paid paper back then," recalled Spittal, estimating there were about 20,000 paid subscribers in North York.
At that time, added Spittal, "a war of papers" was happening with the competition between community newspapers in Toronto especially fierce.
"No one was making money. They were just killing themselves," he said.
That ultimately led to the merger of the two major publishing companies of local community newspapers in 1981 - Metrospan Publishing and Inland Publishing, which became Metroland as it is known today.
The North York Mirror survived the merger, being the stronger community newspaper serving local residents. Spittal continued to work in the distribution department and became manager in the mid-1980s.
One of the big changes, he said, was that carriers didn't have to go collecting every two weeks because The Mirror became a free newspaper.
"And everything was manual back then," said Spittal, including the carrier route lists, which were written out. "But the day of the computer has changed everything."
Things got busier with The Mirror being delivered to homes three times a week instead of just once prior to the merger. And in the first 10 years of operation, there were no flyers delivered in the newspaper.
"Now we're probably the biggest carrier of inserts (flyers)," he said.
The North York Mirror is now delivered twice a week, every Wednesday and Friday, with flyers from major stores inserted into the newspaper.
The circulation has also grown with a current press run of 98,550 newspapers delivered to all houses within the former city of North York.