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'''Postmedia Network Canada Corp.'''<ref name="Corporations Canada">{{cite web |url=https://www.ic.gc.ca/app/scr/cc/CorporationsCanada/fdrlCrpDtls.html?corpId=7535538&V_TOKEN=1590706767108&crpNm=Postmedia+Network&crpNmbr=&bsNmbr= |title=Federal Corporation Information |work=Corporations Canada |access-date=2020-05-28}}</ref> (also known as '''Postmedia Network''', '''Postmedia News''' or '''Postmedia''') is a foreign |
'''Postmedia Network Canada Corp.'''<ref name="Corporations Canada">{{cite web |url=https://www.ic.gc.ca/app/scr/cc/CorporationsCanada/fdrlCrpDtls.html?corpId=7535538&V_TOKEN=1590706767108&crpNm=Postmedia+Network&crpNmbr=&bsNmbr= |title=Federal Corporation Information |work=Corporations Canada |access-date=2020-05-28}}</ref> (also known as '''Postmedia Network''', '''Postmedia News''' or '''Postmedia''') is a foreign-owned Canadian-based [[media conglomerate]]<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.canadalandshow.com/the-conservative-transformation-of-postmedia/|title=You Must Be This Conservative To Ride: The Inside Story of Postmedia's Right Turn|website=canadalandshow.com|date=August 12, 2019 |access-date=2019-08-12}}</ref> consisting of the publishing properties of the former [[Canwest]], with primary operations in English-language newspaper publishing, news gathering and Internet operations. It is best known for being the owner of the ''[[National Post]]'' and the ''[[Financial Post]]''. The company is headquartered at Postmedia Place on [[Bloor Street]] in Toronto.<ref>{{cite web |title=Contact Us {{!}} Postmedia |url=https://www.postmedia.com/contact-us/ |website=postmedia.com |access-date=26 October 2022}}</ref> |
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The company's strategy has seen its publications invest greater resources in digital news gathering and distribution, including expanded [[website]]s and digital news apps for smartphones and tablets.<ref name=citizen>[http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/postmedia-revamps-ottawa-citizen-s-digital-service-1.2648645 "Postmedia revamps Ottawa Citizen's digital service"]. [[CBC News]], May 20, 2014.</ref> This began with a revamp and redesign of the ''[[Ottawa Citizen]]'', which debuted in 2014.<ref name=citizen/> |
The company's strategy has seen its publications invest greater resources in digital news gathering and distribution, including expanded [[website]]s and digital news apps for smartphones and tablets.<ref name=citizen>[http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/postmedia-revamps-ottawa-citizen-s-digital-service-1.2648645 "Postmedia revamps Ottawa Citizen's digital service"]. [[CBC News]], May 20, 2014.</ref> This began with a revamp and redesign of the ''[[Ottawa Citizen]]'', which debuted in 2014.<ref name=citizen/> |
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Postmedia is currently |
66% of Postmedia is currently owned by American media conglomerate [[Chatham Asset Management]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.postmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Postmedia-Network-Canada-Corp-Q1-F2020-Report-FINAL-.pdf.pdf|title=Postmedia Fiscal 2020 Q1 financial report}} on page 15 under 'Related Party Transactions'</ref> |
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==History== |
==History== |
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During the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], Postmedia laid off approximately 80 employees and permanently closed 15 community publications while navigating the financial strain of COVID-19. While the company utilized government subsidies, they claim they were unable to offset the decline in revenue.<ref name="Postmedia-layoffs">{{cite news |last=Sagan |first=Aleksandra |date=April 28, 2020 |title=Postmedia to lay off 80, permanently close 15 newspapers amid coronavirus fallout |website=[[CityNews|Toronto CityNews]] |url=https://toronto.citynews.ca/2020/04/28/postmedia-to-lay-off-80-permanently-close-15-newspapers-amid-coronavirus-fallout/ |access-date=Jan 11, 2023}}</ref> |
During the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], Postmedia laid off approximately 80 employees and permanently closed 15 community publications while navigating the financial strain of COVID-19. While the company utilized government subsidies, they claim they were unable to offset the decline in revenue.<ref name="Postmedia-layoffs">{{cite news |last=Sagan |first=Aleksandra |date=April 28, 2020 |title=Postmedia to lay off 80, permanently close 15 newspapers amid coronavirus fallout |website=[[CityNews|Toronto CityNews]] |url=https://toronto.citynews.ca/2020/04/28/postmedia-to-lay-off-80-permanently-close-15-newspapers-amid-coronavirus-fallout/ |access-date=Jan 11, 2023}}</ref> |
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Postmedia closed 15 community newspapers in Manitoba and Ontario’s Windsor-Essex area as the publications were no longer financially sustainable.<ref name="Postmedia-layoffs" />The publications included Manitoba’s Altona Red River Valley Echo, Carman Valley Leader, Gimli Intertake Spectator, Morden Times, Selkirk Journal, Stonewall Argus & Teulon Times, Winkler Times, and The Prairie Farmer, leaving Portage La Prairie as the company’s community presence in the province.<ref name="Postmedia-layoffs" />For Ontario, the closures included the Kingsville Reporter, Lakeshore News (Windsor-Essex area), LaSalle Post, Napanee Guide, Paris Star, Tecumseh Shoreline Week, and Tilbury Times.<ref name="Postmedia-layoffs" /> |
Postmedia closed 15 community newspapers in Manitoba and Ontario’s Windsor-Essex area as the publications were no longer financially sustainable.<ref name="Postmedia-layoffs" /> The publications included Manitoba’s Altona Red River Valley Echo, Carman Valley Leader, Gimli Intertake Spectator, Morden Times, Selkirk Journal, Stonewall Argus & Teulon Times, Winkler Times, and The Prairie Farmer, leaving Portage La Prairie as the company’s community presence in the province.<ref name="Postmedia-layoffs" /> For Ontario, the closures included the Kingsville Reporter, Lakeshore News (Windsor-Essex area), LaSalle Post, Napanee Guide, Paris Star, Tecumseh Shoreline Week, and Tilbury Times.<ref name="Postmedia-layoffs" /> |
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On February 17, 2022, Postmedia announced a definitive agreement to acquire |
On February 17, 2022, Postmedia announced a definitive agreement to acquire[[Brunswick News | Brunswick News Inc.]] (BNI). As well as several New Brunswick daily and weekly newspapers and "digital properties", BNI's assets included a parcel delivery business and "proprietary distribution software".<ref name="BNIpurchase">{{cite web |title=Postmedia to Acquire Brunswick News Inc. and Extend Maturity of its First and Second Lien Notes |url=https://www.postmedia.com/2022/02/17/postmedia-to-acquire-brunswick-news-inc-and-extend-maturity-of-its-first-and-second-lien-notes/ |website=Postmedia |access-date=18 February 2022 |date=17 February 2022}}</ref> |
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In 2023, Postmedia announced it would be moving a dozen of its Alberta community papers to digital-only platforms, aiming for more outsourcing deals and laying off employees. The announcement was made January 18, 2023, during an internal memo to staff that was obtained by [[The Canadian Press]], describing the measures as a part of a |
In 2023, Postmedia announced it would be moving a dozen of its Alberta community papers to digital-only platforms, aiming for more outsourcing deals and laying off employees. The announcement was made January 18, 2023, during an internal memo to staff that was obtained by [[The Canadian Press]], describing the measures as a part of a "transformation plan geared toward managing costs". Later that day, Postmedia said it had also sold the [[Calgary Herald]] building for $17.23 million to U-Haul Co. after trying to sell it for nearly a decade.<ref>{{cite news|last =Deschamps |first =Tara |title =Postmedia announces plan to move 12 Alberta papers to digital-only, layoff staff|url=https://www.thestar.com/business/2023/01/18/canadian-press-newsalert-postmedia-sells-calgary-herald-building-for-1725m.html|date =Jan 18, 2023|access-date =Jan 19, 2023 }}</ref> |
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In July 2023, Postmedia Network Canada Corp. and Nordstar Capital LP annonce that merger discussion between the two newspaper publishers will not continue.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Merger talks between Postmedia and Toronto Star owner fall apart |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/postmedia-nordstar-1.6902175}}</ref> |
In July 2023, Postmedia Network Canada Corp. and Nordstar Capital LP annonce that merger discussion between the two newspaper publishers will not continue.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Merger talks between Postmedia and Toronto Star owner fall apart |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/postmedia-nordstar-1.6902175}}</ref> |
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=== Ties to right wing politics === |
=== Ties to right wing politics === |
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In October 2018, it was reported that CEO Andrew MacLeod had declared the company "insufficiently conservative |
In October 2018, it was reported that CEO Andrew MacLeod had declared the company "insufficiently conservative". That resulted in Kevin Libin, who had played an active role in defeating a union drive at the paper earlier that year,<ref name="Canadaland">{{cite web |date=June 6, 2018 |title=How Postmedia Defeated A Union Drive At The National Post |url=https://www.canadaland.com/how-postmedia-defeated-a-national-post-union/ |access-date=2020-10-23 |work=CANADALAND}}</ref> taking charge of all political reporting and analysis in Postmedia newspapers to ensure the newspapers became more "reliably conservative."<ref name="National Observer">{{cite web |date=August 27, 2019 |title=Postmedia's employees should stand up to their right-wing bosses |url=https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/08/27/opinion/postmedias-employees-should-stand-their-right-wing-bosses |access-date=2020-10-23 |work=National Observer}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=The new worry about the next election: your daily news - Macleans.ca |url=https://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/the-new-worry-about-the-next-election-your-daily-news/ |access-date=2020-01-01 |website=www.macleans.ca}}</ref> In June 2019, Kevin Libin, comments editor and editorials editor of the ''National Post'' and ''Financial Post'' and a founding editor of ''[[Western Standard]],'' was assigned “executive editor of Postmedia politics".<ref name=":0" /> The role focuses on the coverage of federal politics in the ''National Post.'' In addition, it focuses on the coverage of federal and provincial politics in all of the dailies owned by Postmedia.<ref name=":1"> |
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In November 2019, Postmedia announced<ref>{{cite web |title=Postmedia Fiscal 2020 Q1 financial report |url=http://www.postmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Postmedia-Network-Canada-Corp-Q1-F2020-Report-FINAL-.pdf.pdf}} section 14</ref> that 66% of its shares were now owned by [[Chatham Asset Management]], an American media conglomerate which owns [[American Media, Inc.]] |
In November 2019, Postmedia announced<ref>{{cite web |title=Postmedia Fiscal 2020 Q1 financial report |url=http://www.postmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Postmedia-Network-Canada-Corp-Q1-F2020-Report-FINAL-.pdf.pdf}} section 14</ref> |
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In November 2019, Postmedia announced that 66% of its shares were now owned by [[Chatham Asset Management]], an American media conglomerate which owns [[American Media, Inc.]] and is known for its close ties to the Republican party.<ref>{{cite web |title=Postmedia Fiscal 2020 Q1 financial report |url=http://www.postmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Postmedia-Network-Canada-Corp-Q1-F2020-Report-FINAL-.pdf.pdf}} section 14</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2018-08-30 |title=Behind Trump Tabloid King, a Connected and Flush Hedge Fund |work=Bloomberg |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-30/behind-trump-s-tabloid-king-a-connected-and-flush-hedge-fund |access-date=2020-02-15}}</ref> |
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=== Centralization and lack of localization === |
=== Centralization and lack of localization === |
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The creation of the Postmedia Network effectively concentrates more than 90 percent of all Canadian dailies and weeklies in one company, a fact lamented by J-Source, a Canadian media watchdog, in a 2015 online article.<ref name="J-Source">{{cite web |url=https://j-source.ca/diversity-of-media-ownership-literally-non-existent-in-canada/|title=Diversity of Media Ownership Literally Non-existent in Canada |date=November 29, 2013 |access-date=2019-08-16}}</ref> |
The creation of the Postmedia Network effectively concentrates more than 90 percent of all Canadian dailies and weeklies in one company, a fact lamented by J-Source, a Canadian media watchdog, in a 2015 online article.<ref name="J-Source">{{cite web |url=https://j-source.ca/diversity-of-media-ownership-literally-non-existent-in-canada/|title=Diversity of Media Ownership Literally Non-existent in Canada |date=November 29, 2013 |access-date=2019-08-16}}</ref> |
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[[Margo Goodhand]], a former ''[[Edmonton Journal]] editor-in-chief,'' wrote in a 2016 [[The Walrus|Walrus]] article that Postmedia executives were behind outsourcing of Postmedia content to |
[[Margo Goodhand]], a former ''[[Edmonton Journal]]'' editor-in-chief'','' wrote in a 2016 [[The Walrus|Walrus]] article that Postmedia executives were behind the outsourcing of Postmedia content to a site within an office in Canada for the sake of producing “''Regina Leader-Post'' sports pages, Arts fronts for the ''Montreal Gazette'', editorial pages for the ''Vancouver Sun''”.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Goodh |first=Margo |date=2016-02-04 |title=Above the Fold |url=https://thewalrus.ca/above-the-fold/ |access-date=2020-01-01 |website=The Walrus |language=en-US}}</ref> In a 2020 article by The New York Times, it was reported journalists had attested that since [[Chatham Asset Management]] took over, Postmedia had centralized operations and cut staff so that its 106 newspapers were essentially clones of one another.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lee |first1=Edmund |date=July 16, 2020 |title=Under Hedge Fund Set to Own McClatchy, Canadian Newspapers Endured Big Cuts |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/business/media/hedge-fund-chatham-mcclatchy-postmedia-newspapers.html}}</ref> |
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=== Relationship with the government === |
=== Relationship with the government === |
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On November 27, 2018, The [[Competition Bureau]] applied for a court evaluation contesting Postmedia's claims of solicitor-client privilege, for records seized by the bureau during raids at the company's offices.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Torstar (Again) Blocks Release of Evidence in Conspiracy Case |work=The Tyee |url=https://thetyee.ca/News/2019/02/05/Torstar-Blocks-Release-of-Evidence/ |access-date=March 4, 2019}}</ref>In March 2018, the [[Competition Bureau]] issued a court filing accusing |
On November 27, 2018, The [[Competition Bureau]] applied for a court evaluation contesting Postmedia's claims of solicitor-client privilege, for records seized by the bureau during raids at the company's offices.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Torstar (Again) Blocks Release of Evidence in Conspiracy Case |work=The Tyee |url=https://thetyee.ca/News/2019/02/05/Torstar-Blocks-Release-of-Evidence/ |access-date=March 4, 2019}}</ref> In March 2018, the [[Competition Bureau]] issued a court filing accusing Postmedia and [[Torstar]] of structuring the deal they made together with [[Non-compete clause|no-compete clauses]] in an effort to reduce competition in the newspaper industry in violation of the ''[[Competition Act]]''.<ref>{{Cite news |date=March 22, 2018 |title=Competition Bureau's concerns over Postmedia-Torstar newspaper swap revealed in court filing |language=en-US |work=Financial Post |url=http://business.financialpost.com/telecom/media/competition-bureaus-concerns-over-postmedia-torstar-newspaper-swap-revealed-in-court-filing |access-date=April 6, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Torstar, Postmedia and the arrogance of the deal |work=The Globe and Mail |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rob-commentary/torstar-postmedia-and-the-arrogance-of-the-deal/article38336159/ |access-date=April 6, 2018}}</ref> |
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According to Marc Edge, author of ''The Postmedia Effect'', the network received $9.9 |
According to Marc Edge, author of ''The Postmedia Effect'', the network received $9.9 million in government financial assistance in 2022. In the same year, Postmedia's operating income was only $13 million.<ref name="Edge_20230613">{{cite news |last=Edge |first=March |date=June 13, 2023 |title=Postmedia is in a crash dive – Ottawa should let it decline |work=The Globe and Mail |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-postmedia-is-in-a-crash-dive-ottawa-should-let-it-decline |access-date=June 15, 2023}}</ref> |
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=== Treatment of staff === |
=== Treatment of staff === |
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In 2016, Godfrey took a $900,000 bonus during a time |
In 2016, Paul Godfrey took a $900,000 bonus during a time when Postmedia laid off staff company-wide.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/postmedia-executives-receive-23-million-in-bonuses/article33009649/|title=Postmedia executives receive $2.3-million in retention bonuses|access-date=2019-08-16}}</ref> CFO Doug Lamb received $450,000, COO Andrew MecLeod $425,000, legal and general counsel Jeffrey Harr $300,000, and National Post president Gordon Fisher $200,000. Unions representing Canadian journalists wanted the Postmedia executives to reject the total $2,275,000 as the newspaper chain continued to cut staff.<ref>{{cite news|last =Woodhouse |first =Kristin |title =Unions demand Postmedia executives reject $2.3 million in bonuses|url=https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2016/11/24/unions-demand-postmedia-executives-reject-2-3-million-bonuses/|website =vancouver.citynews.ca|date = November 24, 2016|access-date =Jan 18, 2023 }}</ref> |
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==Assets== |
==Assets== |
Formerly | Canwest Limited Partnership (2000–2010) |
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Company type | Public |
| |
Industry | Mass media |
Predecessor | Canwest |
Founded | July 13, 2010; 13 years ago (2010-07-13) |
Headquarters | 365 Bloor Street East Toronto, Ontario M4W 3L4 |
Products | Newspapers, media websites, news content |
Revenue | $458.2 million CAD (2022)[1] |
Owner |
|
Number of employees | 2,006[2] |
Website | postmedia |
Postmedia Network Canada Corp.[3] (also known as Postmedia Network, Postmedia NewsorPostmedia) is a foreign-owned Canadian-based media conglomerate[4] consisting of the publishing properties of the former Canwest, with primary operations in English-language newspaper publishing, news gathering and Internet operations. It is best known for being the owner of the National Post and the Financial Post. The company is headquartered at Postmedia Place on Bloor Street in Toronto.[5]
The company's strategy has seen its publications invest greater resources in digital news gathering and distribution, including expanded websites and digital news apps for smartphones and tablets.[6] This began with a revamp and redesign of the Ottawa Citizen, which debuted in 2014.[6]
66% of Postmedia is currently owned by American media conglomerate Chatham Asset Management.[7]
The ownership group was assembled by National Post CEO Paul Godfrey[8] in 2010 to bid for the chain of newspapers being sold by the financially troubled Asper family's Canwest (the company's broadcasting assets were sold separately to Shaw Communications). Godfrey secured financial backing from a U.S. private equity firm, the Manhattan-based hedge fund GoldenTree Asset Management—which owns 35 per cent—as well as IJNR Investment Trust, Nyppex and other investors.[8] The group completed a $1.1 billion transaction to acquire the chain from Canwest on July 13, 2010.[8]
On October 6, 2014, Postmedia's CEO Godfrey announced a deal to acquire the English-language operations of Sun Media.[8][9] The purchase received regulatory approval from the federal Competition Bureau on March 25, 2015,[10] even though the company manages competitive papers in several Canadian cities; while the Sun Media chain owns numerous other papers, four of its five Sun-branded tabloids operate in markets where Postmedia already publishes a broadsheet competitor.[9] Board chair Rod Phillips has cited the Vancouver market, in which the two main daily newspapers, the Vancouver Sun and The Province, have had common ownership for over 30 years, as evidence that the deal would not be anticompetitive.[9] The purchase did not include Sun Media's now-defunct Sun News Network.[9] The acquisition was approved by the Competition Bureau on March 25, 2015,[11] and closed on April 13.[12]
In 2016, the company sought to restructure its compensation plans and reduce spending by as much as 20%, after reporting a net loss of $99.4 million, or 35 cents per diluted share, in the fourth-quarter ended Aug 31, compared with a $54.1 million net loss, or 19 cents per diluted share, in the same period a year earlier. This resulted in 90 newsroom staff losing their jobs.[13]
On November 27, 2017, Postmedia and Torstar announced a transaction in which Postmedia will sell seven dailies, eight community papers, and the Toronto and Vancouver 24 Hours to Torstar, in exchange for 22 community papers and the Ottawa and Winnipeg versions of Metro. Except for the Exeter Times-Advocate, St. Catharines Standard, Niagara Falls Review, Peterborough Examiner, and Welland Tribune, all acquired papers will be closed.[14][15]
On June 26, 2018, Canadian Press reported that, by the end of August, Postmedia will be closing the Camrose CanadianinCamrose, Alberta, Strathmore StandardinStrathmore, Alberta, Kapuskasing Northern TimesinKapuskasing, Ontario, Ingersoll TimesinIngersoll, Ontario, Norwich GazetteinNorwich, Ontario and Petrolia TopicinPetrolia, Ontario. It will also cease printing the Portage Daily GraphicinPortage La Prairie, Manitoba, the Northern NewsinKirkland Lake, Ontario, and Pembroke Daily ObserverinPembroke, Ontario while maintaining a digital presence for the three publications. As well, the High River TimesinHigh River, Alberta will go from being published twice a week to once a week.[16]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Postmedia laid off approximately 80 employees and permanently closed 15 community publications while navigating the financial strain of COVID-19. While the company utilized government subsidies, they claim they were unable to offset the decline in revenue.[17]
Postmedia closed 15 community newspapers in Manitoba and Ontario’s Windsor-Essex area as the publications were no longer financially sustainable.[17] The publications included Manitoba’s Altona Red River Valley Echo, Carman Valley Leader, Gimli Intertake Spectator, Morden Times, Selkirk Journal, Stonewall Argus & Teulon Times, Winkler Times, and The Prairie Farmer, leaving Portage La Prairie as the company’s community presence in the province.[17] For Ontario, the closures included the Kingsville Reporter, Lakeshore News (Windsor-Essex area), LaSalle Post, Napanee Guide, Paris Star, Tecumseh Shoreline Week, and Tilbury Times.[17]
On February 17, 2022, Postmedia announced a definitive agreement to acquire Brunswick News Inc. (BNI). As well as several New Brunswick daily and weekly newspapers and "digital properties", BNI's assets included a parcel delivery business and "proprietary distribution software".[18]
In 2023, Postmedia announced it would be moving a dozen of its Alberta community papers to digital-only platforms, aiming for more outsourcing deals and laying off employees. The announcement was made January 18, 2023, during an internal memo to staff that was obtained by The Canadian Press, describing the measures as a part of a "transformation plan geared toward managing costs". Later that day, Postmedia said it had also sold the Calgary Herald building for $17.23 million to U-Haul Co. after trying to sell it for nearly a decade.[19]
In July 2023, Postmedia Network Canada Corp. and Nordstar Capital LP annonce that merger discussion between the two newspaper publishers will not continue.[20]
Postmedia News is the news branch of Postmedia Network, providing similar content to all of its subsidiary news outlets and websites. It is identified as a source on all of its subsidiary newspapers.[21] The news agency provides news, sports, entertainment, photography, financial and feature information and data to Postmedia Network's Canadian newspapers, online properties and a number of third party clients in Canada and the United States.[citation needed]
In October 2018, it was reported that CEO Andrew MacLeod had declared the company "insufficiently conservative". That resulted in Kevin Libin, who had played an active role in defeating a union drive at the paper earlier that year,[22] taking charge of all political reporting and analysis in Postmedia newspapers to ensure the newspapers became more "reliably conservative."[23][24] In June 2019, Kevin Libin, comments editor and editorials editor of the National Post and Financial Post and a founding editor of Western Standard, was assigned “executive editor of Postmedia politics".[4] The role focuses on the coverage of federal politics in the National Post. In addition, it focuses on the coverage of federal and provincial politics in all of the dailies owned by Postmedia.Cite error: A <ref>
tag is missing the closing </ref>
(see the help page).
In November 2019, Postmedia announced that 66% of its shares were now owned by Chatham Asset Management, an American media conglomerate which owns American Media, Inc. and is known for its close ties to the Republican party.[25][26]
The creation of the Postmedia Network effectively concentrates more than 90 percent of all Canadian dailies and weeklies in one company, a fact lamented by J-Source, a Canadian media watchdog, in a 2015 online article.[27]
Margo Goodhand, a former Edmonton Journal editor-in-chief, wrote in a 2016 Walrus article that Postmedia executives were behind the outsourcing of Postmedia content to a site within an office in Canada for the sake of producing “Regina Leader-Post sports pages, Arts fronts for the Montreal Gazette, editorial pages for the Vancouver Sun”.[24][28] In a 2020 article by The New York Times, it was reported journalists had attested that since Chatham Asset Management took over, Postmedia had centralized operations and cut staff so that its 106 newspapers were essentially clones of one another.[29]
On November 27, 2018, The Competition Bureau applied for a court evaluation contesting Postmedia's claims of solicitor-client privilege, for records seized by the bureau during raids at the company's offices.[30] In March 2018, the Competition Bureau issued a court filing accusing Postmedia and Torstar of structuring the deal they made together with no-compete clauses in an effort to reduce competition in the newspaper industry in violation of the Competition Act.[31][32]
According to Marc Edge, author of The Postmedia Effect, the network received $9.9 million in government financial assistance in 2022. In the same year, Postmedia's operating income was only $13 million.[33]
In 2016, Paul Godfrey took a $900,000 bonus during a time when Postmedia laid off staff company-wide.[34] CFO Doug Lamb received $450,000, COO Andrew MecLeod $425,000, legal and general counsel Jeffrey Harr $300,000, and National Post president Gordon Fisher $200,000. Unions representing Canadian journalists wanted the Postmedia executives to reject the total $2,275,000 as the newspaper chain continued to cut staff.[35]
Postmedia owns newspapers that serve smaller communities across Canada, including:
In addition, Postmedia Network owns all websites associated with all properties listed on this page either wholly or in partnership.
Other media groups in Canada include: