Going, Going…

By Brian Bethune - Thursday, December 9, 2010 at 9:40 AM - 0 Comments

Simon Cowell; Lloyd Robertson; Jaroslav Halák | Byron Purvis/Keystone Press Agency; Adrien Veczan/CP; Len Redkoles/NHL/Getty Images

Quit: Steven Slater
In 2010, no one cheered the hearts of disgruntled workers everywhere more than Jet Blue flight attendant Slater, who left his job—and his aircraft—in spectacular fashion. In August, he told off an annoying passenger, grabbed two bottles of beer, released the emergency exit on his landed plane, and slid away to freedom. And into a world of trouble: in October, he pleaded guilty to criminal mischief and was fined US$10,000. For the rest of us, though, it was worth it.

Evicted: the Niqab
After a pharmacist in a niqab—a face veil that reveals only the wearer’s eyes—refused to remove it during French-language class, the Quebec government announced plans to ban government agencies and public institutions from offering services to veiled women. Bill 94, when it becomes law, will effectively eject the niqab from Quebec’s public square in the name of gender equality and maintaining secular values in public services. Meanwhile, the imposing crucifix in the national assembly remains in place.

Continue…

A family that’s too big to fail?

By Jason Kirby - Thursday, April 15, 2010 at 1:40 PM - 1 Comment

Wayne Glowacki/Winnipeg Free Press

In the span of 10 years, Winnipeg’s Asper clan saw much of its $3.5-billion investment in the newspaper business wiped out. Canwest’s television properties have been hemorrhaging viewers and cash for years. Now, after succumbing to its crushing debt load, the Aspers’ company is being carved up and sold off. Not exactly a track record to instill confidence. But when the Aspers, avid free-market proponents, need money these days, they’ve found a willing source of funds—Manitoba taxpayers.

Last week, Manitoba agreed to a deal with David Asper’s Creswin Properties that will see it cough up funds to build a new $115-million stadium for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The money comes in the form of a $90-million loan and a $15-million grant. If Asper repays the loan by 2016 with proceeds from a planned mall next door, he’ll gain control of the CFL team. If not, taxpayers in Manitoba, which faces a $545-million deficit this year, could wind up holding the bill.

Even before the stadium deal, local governments were heavily into another Asper project—the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, a dream conceived by patriarch Izzy Asper before his death. In addition to $120 million in capital and operating funds from Ottawa, Manitoba is on the hook for more than $50 million. Not surprisingly, critics have panned the terms of the stadium deal. “[Premier Greg Selinger] is out of control and running around like a backup quarterback throwing political Hail Marys,” said Opposition Conservative Leader Hugh McFadyen. “It appears Mr. Selinger is turning the government into a lender of last resort for projects that nobody else wants to finance.”

Manitobans had better hope the family’s business track record improves. With so much taxpayer money on the line, the Aspers are looking like they’re too big to fail.

This Week: Good news/Bad news

By macleans.ca - Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 9:10 AM - 0 Comments

A week in the life of Yulia Tymoshenko
The prime minister of Ukraine, Tymoshenko is set to face Viktor Yanukovych in second-round
voting for the country’s presidency, expected to be held next month. Tymoshenko was a leader of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution, the popular uprising against Yanukovych in the aftermath of the country’s 2004 presidential election. While Tymoshenko blamed Russian interference back then, she is now seen as being in favour of closer ties with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Correct punishment
A Canadian man who conspired to commit mass murder in the name of Islam has been handed the harshest punishment possible: life behind bars. The judge who delivered the sentence said it best: “It is difficult to put into words Zakaria Amara’s degree of responsibility. He was the leader and directing mind of a plot that would have resulted in the most horrific crime Canada has ever seen.” The confessed ringleader of the “Toronto 18”—a man obsessed with detonating truck bombs—was hoping for a 20-year term, which, with credit for time served, may have put him back on the streets by the end of the decade. But the life sentence ensures Amara will remain in prison until the day he dies, or the day the National Parole Board decides he is no longer a threat to fellow Canadians. We hope that’s a very, very long way off.

Continue…

The truth about Canwest’s collapse

By Steve Maich - Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 12:40 PM - 1 Comment

There are certain archetypical characters that come up again and again as we rush to scribble out the first draft of history. In business, the roles are particularly well-worn: the iconoclastic entrepreneur, the maverick gambler, the sage manager, the disruptive outsider, the establishment man, and, of course, the dilettante heir. We organize these characters into familiar storylines—the heroic rise, the humiliating fall, the tragic miscalculation—again and again, not just to elevate the mundane details of commerce into dramatic narratives, but because these storylines serve a purpose. People are good or bad, smart or stupid, and everything makes sense.

We never tire of these familiar fables because they impose a tidy order on the chaotic events of life. They reinforce certain ideas that make the world seem less arbitrary, less random, and less frightening. Triumphs are always the result of human genius, and failures are generally flaws of character written in our DNA. Everybody deserves their fate. Continue…

Canwest’s quiet coup

By Colin Campbell - Monday, August 10, 2009 at 2:08 PM - 5 Comments

It’s the company that just won’t die. After teetering on the edge of bankruptcy for months, Canwest won another extension from its major bondholders last week, preserving the debt-laden company in a state of limbo until at least Aug. 14. Insiders tell Maclean’s that a resolution is getting close, however, and despite the outward calm, intense negotiations are progressing that will see Canwest changed forever.

For the last few months, what was once one of Canada’s largest and most influential media companies has been at the mercy of bondholders who are owed more than $760 million. Sources familiar with the negotiations confirm that the key players include two U.S. hedge funds—GoldenTree Asset Management and Beach Point Capital Management—and one Canadian firm, West Face Capital, names first reported in the Globe and Mail. Since Canwest has missed several interest payments, this small cadre of bondholders could pull the plug and demand full payment at any time—which would almost surely force Canwest into bankruptcy. So far they’ve resisted, instead granting nearly a dozen extensions. Continue…

The last days of a dynasty

By Peter C. Newman - Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 9:00 AM - 5 Comments

In the fall of 1999, Izzy Asper—Canwest’s founder, animating spirit and autocratic warlord—finally surrendered official command to his younger son, Leonard (while staying on as executive chairman). His 35-year-old heir hosted a private family dinner to celebrate the occasion. “What will this mean for me?” the freshly minted president and CEO asked, looking around the table, then answered his own question: “Nothing,” he said. “I will always get in the last words, ‘Yes. Dad. No. Dad. Right away, Dad.’ ”

Nearly a decade later, as the world has turned into an economic killing field, Leonard misses the affirming echo of his father, who had a million miles on his meter and seemed capable of handling any emergency. Izzy died in 2003 but his last deal, the purchase by Canwest Global Communications Corp. of Conrad Black’s newspaper chain, buried the Winnipeg-based company in a catacomb of debt—$4.1 billion—from which it never emerged. That debt, added to later financial obligations, has dragged the entire media empire to the very brink of insolvency. As Maclean’s went to press late Tuesday night, Canwest was still locked in negotiations with its lenders, searching for some way to restructure, without tearing the company apart.

Continue…

Put workers, not banks, first in line

By Philip Slayton - Wednesday, April 15, 2009 at 11:45 AM - 5 Comments

On Nov. 12, media giant Canwest Global Communications let go of 560 employees. Across the Canwest empire, unsuspecting workers were called into boardrooms, tables thoughtfully furnished with boxes of tissues, to be given the bad news. As the law requires, Canwest offered severance pay. Many were reportedly offered salary continuance for a limited period, the length of which depended on how long they’d worked for the company. A lump sum upfront was not on the table. Anyone who refused the offer would almost certainly have to hire a lawyer and fight it out. For the most part, the freshly axed employees weren’t up to it. They took what promises they could get, and left.

But the bad news stories didn’t stop. Canwest was in big trouble. It needed to refinance massive debt, and might not be able to do it. The company might soon be in breach of loan covenants. Its share price had plunged. Creditors were circling. A filing under the federal Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) might be inevitable. (No filing has yet taken place.)

Continue…

UPDATED: Canwest Watch

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, April 14, 2009 at 11:00 PM - 8 Comments

The media company behind the Global television network, and the country’s biggest chain of daily newspapers, is racing to restructure its prodigious debt load. With another key deadline on Feb. 27 March 11 April 7 April 14 April 21 May 5 May 19 June 15, and the stock changing hands for nickels a share, the question remains whether Canwest can avoid filing for bankruptcy, and whether the Asper family can maintain control of the empire their father, Izzy, created. Signs continue to point to a dire outcome for Canwest shareholders, but the Asper kids want to reassure everyone: don’t worry about them, they’ll be just fine.

Bloomberg, May 29, 2009: Canwest says it won’t make a $10 million payment to bondholders due today in effort to give its newspaper business more time to refinance its debt. Its failure to make the payment will put the Canwest Ltd. Partnership division, which owns 12 dailies, in breach of its debt covenants on May 31. Managers are in talks with lenders, as failure to make the payment would trigger a default on the notes.

Reuters, May 20, 2009: Canwest annnounced it has negotiated $175 million in new financing with its creditors. The embattled media empire says it has buyers for $100 milion in 12 per cent senior secured notes and that it has negotiated a $75 million asset-based loan with CIT Business Credit Canada Inc. The company’s senior lenders have agreed to defer payments worth around $10 million until June 2 in order for the new financing to be arranged, while its noteholders postponed yesterday’s deadline for a recapitalization transaction to June 15.

The Globe and Mail, May 16, 2009: As part of it continuing effort to shed non-core business assets, Canwest has sold off its Turkish radio business. Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but Canwest’s 20-per-cent stake in Spectrum Medya was estimated to be worth $12.2-million when the deal was completed four years ago.

The Globe and Mail, May 11, 2009: Canwest may be considering as many as four proposals from investors interested in participating in a recapitalization plan. Fairfax Financial, Onex Corp., Brookfield Asset Management and an unnamed Australian private equity investor are all rumoured to be considering playing a role in the restructuring, which is expected to involve swapping to debt for equity in the company.

CBC, May 6, 2009: Canwest has come to terms with its bondholders on another two-week extension (to May 19) for a $30.4 million interest payment on $761 million worth notes. In the meantime, creditors have agreed not to demand immediate repayment of the principal and will extend further credit to the company.

The Globe and Mail, April 30, 2009: Canwest has announced it will not publish a Monday edition of the National Post throughout July and August in a bid to reduce costs. The suspension of the Monday issue will begin July 6 and end September 14, affecting nine print runs in total. Continue…

Helping friends in need

By Jonathon Gatehouse and Philippe Gohier - Thursday, April 2, 2009 at 5:20 PM - 4 Comments

It’s a rather inauspicious date, but construction work on the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg is scheduled to begin April 1. There won’t be a lot of fanfare—an official groundbreaking ceremony was held just before Christmas. Heritage Minister James Moore made the trek to the frozen site at the forks of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. So did Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who paid tribute to the late Izzy Asper, the man whose audacious dream is about to become a reality. The $265-million project will be the “capstone” on the legacy of the founder of Canwest Global Communications, he said, while Gail, Asper’s daughter, proudly looked on. In creating the first national museum outside of Ottawa, the Conservative government has pledged $100 million toward construction costs, and a further $21.7 million a year in operating funds, in perpetuity. But when it comes to helping the Asper family secure its dreams, it appears the feds may still have more to give.

As Canwest, owner of 13 daily newspapers and two Canadian television networks, flirts with bankruptcy, approaching yet another make-or-break deadline with its creditors on April 7, Ottawa is readying a lifeline. Last week, Moore confirmed that the Harper government is looking at loosening broadcast regulations and changing tax rules to help give the company, and other struggling private broadcasters, some relief. And while the heritage minister was quick to add that no specific promises have been made, it’s clear what the networks have on their wish list—a reversal of CRTC policy that would see cable and satellite providers pay them “carriage fees” for the basic TV channels they now pass on for free. That arrangement would net the broadcasters an estimated $300 million a year, perhaps directly out of consumers’ pockets.

Continue…

Family ties

By Jonathon Gatehouse - Saturday, March 21, 2009 at 1:28 AM - 17 Comments

A potential federal bailout for private television broadcasters is about to come under scrutiny before a parliamentary committee. Starting March 25, the House of Commons standing committee on Canadian heritage will launch a series of hearings into the television industry’s current economic crisis. But the opposition is serving notice that it intends to find out why the Harper government seems intent on helping private companies like CTV and Canwest Global, while leaving the publicly-owned CBC to fend for itself.

“We want to make sure that (Heritage Minister) James Moore isn’t making a sweetheart deal with a bunch of lobbyists who are close to the Prime Minister,” says Charlie Angus, the NDP’s heritage critic. Earlier this week, the Canadian Press reported that Stephen Harper has recently met with both Canwest CEO Leonard Asper, and Pierre-Karl Peladeau, head of Quebecor, owners of the French language TVA network, to discuss the broadcasters’ concerns. Moore has indicated that the government is looking at regulatory changes and tax breaks to aid the networks—most specifically Canwest which is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy—but says no specific commitments have been made.

Witness lists for the hearings are still being drawn up, but the first to be heard from will be Konrad von Finckenstein, chair of the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC.) Private broadcasters have long been after the CRTC to treat their conventional channels more like specialty networks, which receive a share of cable subscribers’ monthly bills known as carriage fees. Cable providers like Rogers, which owns Maclean’s, are opposed to the idea, claiming the system could inflate customers’ bills by as much as $10 a month.

One opposition concern is the close relationship between Canwest’s owners, the Asper family, and the ruling Conservative Party. The media company’s newspapers have endorsed Harper in the past two federal elections, reflecting a shift in the family’s political allegiances. Izzy Asper, the company’s late founder was a former leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party and a lifelong Grit partisan. In 2003, the year he died, the company donated almost $54,000 to the Liberals, more than double the $25,000 it gave the then Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance. But Asper’s children—Len, David, and Gail—have broken with the faith. Especially since dithering by former Liberal Finance minister Ralph Goodale on tax changes for income trusts shaved an estimated $150 million off the value of a 2005 Canwest newspaper trust offering. In 2007, for example, Len, David, and Ruth, their mother, all donated $1,000 each to the Tories, close to the new maximum. So did Gail, although she also gave $500 to the Green Party and $1,100 to the Liberals.

And since Stephen Harper took power in Jan 2006, his government has been supportive of some of the Aspers other endeavours. The Tories not only carried through with Liberal pledges to fund Izzy’s dream of a Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg, but substantially upped the ante. In addition to $100 million towards construction costs, Ottawa has designated the project a “national museum”—the first-ever outside the National Capital Region—and pledged a further $21.7 million a year in operating funds, in perpetuity. (The Asper Family Foundation have pledged $20 million to the project—the third $4 million installment is due later this month—and Gail has been instrumental in raising a further $85 million for public and corporate donors.)

This past December, Treasury Board Minister Vic Toews, indicated that Ottawa is ready to give a further $15 million to another family obsession—a new stadium for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Under the proposed plan, the private sector will pony up $100 million of the $150 million estimated cost of the new 30,000 seat facility at the University of Manitoba. And David will take control of the now civically-owned franchise.

Another hot topic at the hearings will be the lack of government interest in bailing out the CBC. The sudden drop off in advertising has left the public broadcaster with a $100 million hole in its budget. But its pleas for an advance on next year’s funding, or other financial assistance, have been greeted with a collective Tory shrug. The NDP’s Angus questions why James Moore seems so willing to help one part of the industry, and so disinterested in the plight of another. “He’s basically hanging the CBC out to dry, going as far as to ridicule its request for bridge financing,” he charges.

But the bottom line for opposition parties will be getting the government and networks to live up to existing commitments regarding local broadcasting and Canadian content. And there they might find at least some common ground. Indeed the sudden Conservative interest in a bailout has followed on the heels of CTV’s announcement that it will close three underperforming stations—two in Ontario and one in Manitoba. And similar noises from Canwest that the same fate awaits its 5 E! channels unless a buyer can quickly be found. Coupled with the networks cuts to local newscasts, the trend bodes ill for the Tories’ favoured strategy of going “over the head” of the press gallery in Ottawa, and flogging its policies through interviews with local media.

“It wasn’t local broadcasting or Canadian content that brought us into this mess,” says Angus. “And things shouldn’t be balanced on its back.”

—with Philippe Gohier

Some broadcasters are more equal than others

By Jonathon Gatehouse and Philippe Gohier - Friday, March 20, 2009 at 12:38 AM - 32 Comments

Good things come to those who wait. At least that’s Canwest Global Communications’ perspective on Ottawa’s new-found willingness to consider assistance for Canada’s beleaguered private television networks.

On Wednesday, Heritage Minister James Moore confirmed that the Harper government is looking at loosening broadcast regulations and changing tax rules to help the media giant stave off bankruptcy. But the spin from the company’s Winnipeg HQ is that this is less a bailout than a righting of historic wrongs.

“It’s a sign that the government is hearing the growing chorus of voices—consumer groups, organized labour, the Opposition, special interest groups—who are all saying that the way consumer dollars are collected for viewing cable are not being adequately and fairly sent around to everybody,” says John Douglas, Canwest’s vice-president public affairs. “Our position on this is the same as it has been since 1971.”

Canwest, along with CTV and Quebecor, owners of the private French TVA network, have long been asking the CRTC to treat their conventional channels more like specialty networks, which receive a share of cable subscribers’ monthly bills known as carriage fees. Cable providers like Rogers, which owns Maclean’s, are opposed to the idea, claiming the system could inflate customers’ bills by as much as $10 a month. The conventional broadcasters say the estimated $300 million a year fee-for-carriage would generate is essential to their survival. The CRTC categorically rejected that argument last fall, saying the networks failed to prove they really needed the higher revenues. But as the global economic meltdown has taken its toll on advertising, broadcasters are finding that Ottawa is a lot more receptive to being—rather than crying—poor. “We have the CRTC admitting now that the model is broken,” says Douglas. “And anything that would be contemplated by the federal government, I’m assuming, would be in recognition that the state of the industry is what we said it was two years ago.”

But deep cuts to local news coverage by all the private networks, moves by Canwest to sell its five E! channels and threats by both CTV and CanWest to walk away from unprofitable smaller markets, are also clearly forcing government’s hand. And the message that immediate help is needed has been taken directly to 24 Sussex Drive. Both CanWest CEO Leonard Asper and Quebecor’s Pierre-Karl Péladeau, have personally met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on behalf of their companies in recent weeks. The federal lobbyist database also shows meetings with Minister Moore, senior CRTC executives, and former industry minister Jim Prentice. Douglas would not comment on specific meetings, or reports that Canwest has engaged the lobbying services of Ken Boessenkool, a former senior Harper adviser, but said the company has always kept Ottawa in the loop about its concerns: “The amount of dialogue we’ve had is no different that what we’ve had over the previous years.”

If the government’s aim in saving Canwest is to preserve local programming, easing content restrictions is a curious way to go about it, argues Canada’s largest media union. In a statement released Thursday, the Communnications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada says the federal government should be wary of bailing out from under the weight of its “bad business decisions.” In fact, if the CRTC does eventually allow the broadcasters’ to collect carriage fees, the government agency should use the opportunity to tie the extra funds to “new, original news and information programming,” says Peter Murdoch, the union’s vice-president, media. “Local programming is not the cause of Canwest’s debt problems, nor should it be made its victim.”

The prospect of doling out government aid to Canwest also raises the question of just what the government should be doing to help other types of media struggling in these uncertain economic times. Canwest, for example, also owns 39 daily and community newspapers in Canada. And while they don’t appear to be lobbying Ottawa for assistance on that front (the lobbying database lists “broadcasting” as the subject of all recent meetings), given the industry’s current difficulties south of the border, it is not inconceivable that Canada’s papers will also soon find themselves at a crossroads.

David Black, president and CEO of Black Press, which operates more than 150 community and daily papers in Canada and the U.S., declined to comment on any possible assistance for his competitor (“You don’t want to go there”) but said there is a case to be made for Ottawa helping print too. “I don’t believe that government will work very well without daily newspapers,” he says. “If the opposition raises its voice in the House and no one is there to report it, what good does that do?” Given the current crisis, journalistic ethics may have to take a back seat to economic realities, says Black. “You want to be able to run editorially without fear or favour, but on the other hand we’ve got a problem.”

The one place where the Harper government is emphatically drawing the line, however, is public broadcasting. Moore has already said Ottawa will not provide more money to the CBC after the network disclosed that it is facing an estimated $100 million hole in its budget due to shrinking ad revenue. Ditto to requests for an advance on next year’s funding or a bridge loan. “The only way we’ll get the financial flexibility we had asked for,” says CBC spokesperson Marco Dubé, “is to sell some of our assets.” For his part, the Heritage minister suggested earlier this week that the CBC would have to cut between 600 and 1,200 jobs to balance its books.

Whether the public and private broadcasters—long bitter enemies—will find common cause in these troubled times, remains to be seen. One of the issues that Leonard Asper is registered to lobby on is the future mandate of the CBC. But at this point, CanWest has no position of whether its rival deserves some assistance too. “That’s not for us to comment on,” says Douglas. “We’re in a position to comment on our situation and the realities of our network.”

Coyne v. Wells on the sorry, sorry state of the media: All the self-pity, and twice the denial!

By Andrew Coyne - Friday, February 27, 2009 at 3:41 PM - 85 Comments

Coyne and Wells discuss hard times for the media

▶

Canwest steps closer to the brink

By Duncan Hood - Thursday, January 15, 2009 at 12:56 PM - 3 Comments

Canwest took another step closer to the brink yesterday. At the company’s annual general meeting in Toronto on Wednesday, CEO Leonard Asper announced not only weaker than expected results for the first quarter of its 2009 fiscal year, but even more worrying, that Canwest may be forced to breach a covenant on its debt.

Asper said his company had been blindsided by a sudden drop in advertising revenue resulting in a $33-million loss in the company’s first quarter, compared to a $41-million profit in the same quarter last year. “We have no certainty that we have hit bottom,” he told investors, “I don’t think anyone in this room feels comfortable saying that. It’s hard to say it’s getting worse, but it’s certainly not getting better.”

Continue…

Could Canwest go bankrupt?

By Duncan Hood - Monday, December 22, 2008 at 9:00 AM - 43 Comments

Next year will mark the 10th anniversary of Leonard Asper’s ascent to the top job at Canwest Global Communications, taking over the reins from his late father Izzy. But there might not be much of a celebration. It hasn’t been an easy ride. When the youngest Asper became president and CEO in 1999, Canwest was trading at close to $20 a share. As of early this week, it was treading water around 60 cents. What was once arguably Canada’s leading media company was kicked off the country’s main market index in September, and is now a struggling penny stock.

Asper himself seems more perplexed than anyone by his company’s rapid decline. After all, as he’s fond of pointing out, Canwest is not only making money, it’s making more money every year. Revenues have increased from $2.7 billion in fiscal 2006, to $2.9 billion in 2007, to $3.1 billion in 2008. Similarly, Canwest’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization)—a popular indicator of a company’s profitability—looks healthy. As of August, the end of Canwest’s latest fiscal year, its EBITDA hit a three-year high of $578 million—$91 million higher than the year before. Canwest’s various holdings, which include Global Television, Network Ten in Australia, various websites and 10 major daily newspapers (including the National Post), are as a whole still making money. And analysts say that from a strategic standpoint, the company’s decision to acquire Alliance Atlantis and its portfolio of top specialty TV channels last year made perfect sense.

Continue…

CanWest gets scabby with it

By Martin Patriquin - Thursday, October 9, 2008 at 9:12 PM - 0 Comments

Members of the Montreal Media Guild, which represents Montreal Gazette employees in editorial, advertising and reader sales, voted to strike last month. (The Gazette is owned by Winnipeg-based CanWest Publishing Inc.) The most evident sign of this was the decision of its editorial members to withhold their bylines last week in protest. I’ve always doubted the efficacy of byline strikes–-the only people who care about bylines are journalists and the parents of journalists–but apparently the whiff of a strike has pressed CanWest brass into action. Should there be a strike, there will be a whole lot of white space to fill. So CanWest News Service Editor-In-Chief Gerry Nott did the obvious thing: he called up the local university and offered to make scabs out of several journalism students.

Continue…

Nine candles and ten months

By Paul Wells - Sunday, August 3, 2008 at 11:56 PM - 0 Comments

This excellent article in the Globe and Mail, bearing the fingerprints of no fewer than five reporters, details CanWest’s difficulties and suggests two possible solutions: the Aspers, and apparently Leonard more than the others, might take the company private; and the company might cut the National Post loose. Senator Jerry Grafstein is listed as a possible buyer.

This news has already inspired the usual snickering from the usual suspects. It’s unfortunate that, along with the rest of their yeoman labour on this CanWest story, the Globe‘s armies weren’t also able to do what Richard Pérez-Peña, a very fine New York Times reporter working these days on the media beat, was able to do singlehandedly: put the troubles of one media corporation into a little perspective. A lot of media companies are in profound trouble — Pérez-Peña cites several cases of market capitalization falling by more than 90% in a year and a half. So several of the English-speaking world’s most venerable news outlets could be bought for a song tomorrow, if only any buyer could believe they won’t simply decline in value still further. Continue…

CanWest doez copie edditting

By Martin Patriquin - Friday, July 4, 2008 at 9:08 AM - 0 Comments

Back in the bad old days when print ruled, heads would roll if someone made a spelling mistake in a headline or a sub-head. They would roll even faster if said sub-head was for an above the fold story. Today? Not so much, I guess. I swear there’s a joke about CanWest’s editorial cuts and/or buyouts and the resulting loss in quality control here somewhere.

A high-priced tea party

By Paul Wells - Thursday, July 3, 2008 at 12:38 PM - 0 Comments

CanWest: Ouch. Best of luck, amid all the wheeling carnage, to Frances Bula, one of the country’s finest city-hall reporters, now clear of the blast radius.