Postmedia Network Canada posted a loss in operating income in its most recent financial report, prompting multiple experts to question the future of the company.

The company suffered an operating loss of $46.3 million in the first quarter of this fiscal year. That amounts to a 338 per cent decrease when compared to the $19.4 million gain that the company posted in the same quarter last year.

Business strategy professor Ian Lee of Carleton University said that Postmedia has simply “run out of options” in managing its losses.

“Postmedia is dying before our eyes,” Lee said. “It’s the beginning of the end.”

The loss of income continues Postmedia’s recent trend as the company continues  to lose money. Struggles to offset its steadily lowering print ad revenue in the digital world have seen total revenue drop by over $36 million, or 14.4 per cent, since this period last year.

Michael McIntyre, a professor and financial expert at Carleton University, criticized Postmedia’s lack of a winning corporate strategy as a reason for its lower income. He blamed the company’s inability to beat their digital competitors, adding that there was “potential” for the company to fold if they cannot find a solution to their income loss.

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President and CEO Paul Godfrey has remained optimistic for Postmedia’s future. In the news release for its most recent financial reports, Godfrey said that the company was making progress in its restructuring plans through “significant cost reduction initiatives,” and had “increases in digital revenues this quarter.”

But for Postmedia, the recent numbers and news from the company tell a less positive story.

Part of the company’s response to its loss of income has been to cut back on its workforce.  Postmedia announced last October its goal to trim salaries in the company by 20 per cent through voluntary buyouts to reduce expenses. Postmedia also said they would lay off employees if its target was not met. Those layoffs began in January, with 90 jobs cut across the country. Postmedia did not respond to an inquiry about the status of their workforce.

Lee was adamant that the company’s business model is no longer viable.

“There’s nothing left to do but just lay off people,” Lee said. “You can only restructure so many times and then there’s literally nothing left to restructure.”

Restructuring and layoffs have not prevented Godfrey and the rest of the company’s top executives from receiving significant bonuses. The company will pay out a total of $2.275 million in retention bonuses to Godfrey and four other executives in three parts, with the final instalment  due to be paid out in July of 2017.

That number does not include the $925,000 in bonuses paid out to Godfrey and five other top executives in 2015 for their work in acquiring Sun Media’s English-language holdings. That deal cost $316 million and significantly boosted Postmedia’s revenues. But it also raised the company’s operating costs, which it has so far been unable to balance.

Postmedia’s troubles have not gone unnoticed. The Public Policy Forum, headed by former news editor and journalist Edward Greenspon, recently released a report entitled “The Shattered Mirror” which discusses the current state of the news media in Canada. The report offers possible solutions to save news outlets like Postmedia from their increasing deficits, including government bailouts and funding.

But Lee said the government won’t bail out Postmedia because it already has a preferred option for news.

“It’s called the CBC,” Lee said. “And it’s doing very well.”