Striking, locked-out employees of the Quebecor Inc. tabloid Journal de Quebec picketed the newspaper's offices Wednesday for the first time since conflict began April 22, after a meeting between the union and management broke down.

The increasingly bitter dispute is over job cuts, changes to working conditions and concern the paper is losing its Quebec City identity.

Managers are continuing to publish the paper, using management employees and editorial material from the Journal de Montreal and agencies, while employees are distributing 40,000 free copies a day of their own full-colour newspaper, MediaMatinQuebec.