Winnipeg and Manitoba the low-key part of Postmedia purchase of the Sun
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/10/2014 (4017 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
There is lots of excitement – mixed with lots of bad jokes – about the purchase of all the Sun newspapers by Postmedia.
“This is the biggest news since you cornered the covered wagon market. #AmishBusinessTycoon,” one Tweeter commented shortly after the announcement yesterday.
Regular readers of this blog know I do not share such pessimistic views about the newspaper industry.
Personally, I think Postmedia’s purchase of all English-language Sun properties is a bold bet on the future of Canadian newspapers and their substantial reach into the lives of people across the country.
The changes will be felt all the way to Winnipeg, though our city and province were pretty much an afterthought in all of the news coverage of the sale.
Most people don’t follow who owns what media, so I offer this blog to explain what is happening here in Manitoba and northwestern Ontario.
The Winnipeg Sun, along with papers such as the Portage Daily Graphic, Kenora Daily Miner and News, and several community newspapers in southern Manitoba will be owned and operated by Postmedia.
The company has committed to continue operating the Sun papers.
In other major markets, such as Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa, Postmedia intends to combine resources and operate two or more papers in the same city.
That won’t happen here because Postmedia does not own other papers here.
The Winnipeg Free Press is owned by FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership (FPLP), which also owns the Brandon Sun, Steinbach Carillon, and all the free distribution Canstar community newspapers in Winnipeg.
FPLP is controlled by Ron Stern and his business partner, Bob Silver, who hold 51 per cent of the company privately. The rest – 49 per cent – is part of FP Newspapers Inc., a publicly traded company that owns securities entitling it to 49 per cent of the distributable cash of FPLP.
The Free Press has a long and close relationship with Postmedia.
Postmedia sells national advertising in print and digital for us and it provides editorial content and other editorial services. We used to print the National Post in Winnipeg, but the paper discontinued publishing here several years ago.
We expect there to be changes, but we do not know what they may be.
Postmedia must get federal regulatory approval before the sale can close and that could take a few months.
At that time we will know better what the lay of the land is for newspapers in Winnipeg and Manitoba.