Digital marketing agency Eyereturn Marketing will be ending operations next month.

In a LinkedIn post Wednesday morning, president and CEO Parry Bell said that parent company Torstar had decided to shut down Eyereturn, wrapping up operating by the end of January.

Eyereturn currently has just under 30 full-time staff.

Bob Hepburn, director of communications at Torstar, confirmed that Eyereturn would be closing “due to financial challenges facing the business.” Eyereturn will continue to fulfill its client obligations until the end of January and support them in transitioning to other service providers.

Torstar first acquired Eyereturn in 2013. In November 2020, Torstar sold Eyereturn’s ad targeting tech to Loblaw, which integrated it into its own media offering. Eyereturn continued to operate under Torstar, focusing on media planning, search, social and a data offering bolstered by Torstar’s first-party data. Bell, previously an SVP within Torstar, took over leadership of Eyereturn the following year. This year, it launched a new reporting and analytics platform called Dashlight.

Last month, an arbitrator settled a dispute between NordStar Capital owners Jordan Bitove and Paul Rivett, who had disagreed about the direction of the company and sought to dissolve it. Bitove was awarded ownership of Torstar in the decision; he had advocated for the company’s role as a civic institution and pushed for more regulation of the digital ad market, whereas Rivett had been more focused on diversifying revenue streams and greater co-operation between the sales and news teams. Both parties, however, predicted a rocky road ahead for the company either way, as it was rapidly losing money.