About 100 24 Hours boxes, owned by the same parent company as the Ottawa Sun, were removed from city streets in and around Centretown Tuesday and Wednesday, after requests from the city to its owners to pay for their placements were ignored, city officials said this week.
However, publisher Rick Gibbons told the OBJ Thursday that the problems with the municipality had been fixed.
"The issue has been resolved, " he said. "We are in the process of retrieving our boxes. "
An estimated 100 boxes in total had been impounded over at least two days this week, city officials said. They were taken by municipal pickup trucks from Centretown areas of Bank Street, as well as some residential areas of town, one official said.
The official added that retrieving the boxes would cost the newspaper more than $100 apiece in various administration fees, besides the annual $68 fee for a valid sticker.
The fees, however, will be waived, Mr. Gibbons said.
"There will no charge applied to us, " he said.
"It was a miscommunication, " Mr. Gibbons continued. "We just clarified with the city. We had a discussion with the city, and this issue has been resolved. "
24 Hours, and its French-language sister publication 24 heures, hit city streets in November, the same week as CanWest and the Ottawa Citizen unveiled its free commuter daily, RushHour.
All three compete vigourously with Denmark-based Metro.
