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.

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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…

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.