Media shakeup expected Canada's broadcasters and publishers look set to head out on the acquisition trailIn the minds of investment bankers, 2004 will be the year of renewed consolidation in the Canadian media sector. After a flurry of activity when the new century began, calamities including terrorist attacks on New York and Washington and the collapse of dot-com companies took the steam out of what was then called convergence. Yet according to a number of high-level executives at Canadian broadcasting, newspaper and entertainment companies, investment bankers are working overtime conjuring up matches, public floats and spinoffs. "There's not a quarter that goes by that any of us in the business aren't being talked to about various combinations and permutations," said John Cassaday, chief executive of Corus Entertainment Inc. . .
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Who pays for this blog? I receive no fees, considerations, etc. etc. for the posts on this blog nor do I have any plans to accept any. My salary is paid by Canwest Global Communications Corp. I work for that company as the Ottawa-based National Affairs Correspondent for Canwest News Service. The blog publishing platform used here is called Blogware and it's developed by Tucows Inc. of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. My use of Blogware should not be taken as an endorsement of that company. Like all Blogware users, I do not pay any fees for the use of this service. I participate in program. Google pays me some money and, for that, I give Google some space on this site to display ads. Google sells those ads and Google, not me, decides what advertising content you are seeing. I do not filter these ads and take no responsibility for them. Readers should not assume I endorse any of the products or services advertised here. If you think other disclosures are appropriate in this space, I'd like to hear from you. All of my contact details are always at www.davidakin.com You can read more about this section |
A year for consolidation in Canada's media sector?
My former colleague Barb Shecter -- at not one, but two papers, in fact --- makes the rounds of the possible scenarios for more consolidation in Canada's media sector in 2004-05. Some old rumours in this good read but also plenty of new ones, or at least some new twists. She touches on just about every major media company -- including my employer, rumoured to be ready to sell the Globe to the publisher of [the Canadian version of] TV Guide this fall (although it's my gut instinct the Thomson family would die before that happened) -- except for what I think might be among the juiciest of rumours: Torstar Corp. meets Gerry Schwartz and Onex Corp. meets the Asper family meets the National Post. This is one that's been around for a while now and it goes a bit like this: Schwartz' Onex puts some significant cash into Torstar Corp. and Torstar Corp. makes some deal -- either an outright purchase or some sort of operating agreement -- to become the publisher of the National Post, relieving Canwest of the financial burden of the Post and giving the Star its entrée into a national footprint
and putting an absolute lock on Toronto-area readership and and sales.
Aaah, the new year and rumours . .
Here's a clip from Barb's article
Comments
Re: A year for consolidation in Canada's media sector?
by
Doug Mehus
on Sat 10 Jan 2004 08:12 PM EST | Profile | Permanent Link
The article you're referring to produces the error "This story is no longer available." Do you know if this story has been posted elsewhere, by chance?
It seems like a fascinating article and I'm quite encouraged to read it, especially from the snippet you posted. By the way, I love your technology and business oriented news reports on CTV News. :) Cheers, Doug Re: A year for consolidation in Canada's media sector?
by
DavidAkin
on Tue 13 Jan 2004 05:11 PM EST | Profile | Permanent Link
Hey Doug -- thanks for the feedback.
Generally, both the Post and the Globe (and many other newspapers such as the New York Times) make the online versions of stories that appeared in the paper available for free for a limited time, often a week or so after they are published. After that, you have to use a fee-for-view service like Factiva or Infomart to see these articles. Such is the case with Barb's story. It's online life has expired. Most reference librarians have a subscription to Infomart or Factiva and should be able to help you find Barb's article if you're still interested. Re: A year for consolidation in Canada's media sector?
by
Doug Mehus
on Wed 14 Jan 2004 10:49 PM EST | Profile | Permanent Link
Ah, okay. I knew The New York Times has a very short online lifespan for its articles, as does The Associated Press, but wasn't sure about the Post or the Globe.
I'll look into the services you mentioned. I appreciate the response. Cheers, Doug |
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