Postmedia Canada Network, the country’s largest newspaper publisher, is tightening its grip on the industry, buying the Sun Media chain of 175 tabloids and small city dailies, a move that reflects the declining fortunes of the news business.
The Montreal-based broadcasting and publishing company Quebecor acquired and expanded Sun Media through acquisitions, spending about US$1.5 billion over 15 years. On Monday, Postmedia paid about C$301 million (US$275 million) for the group, which includes the Toronto Sun and the London Free Press.
Both firms have been struggling in an increasingly digital world, with Postmedia and Sun Media facing a series of cutbacks and layoffs. Christopher Waddell, a professor of journalism and a former financial journalist at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, said that Sun’s smaller dailies, in particular, “are just a shadow of what they used to be.”
With the deal, Postmedia expects to wring out cost savings of C$6 million to C$10 million. Postmedia CEO Paul Godfrey said he had no plans to close or sell any of Sun Media’s papers.
Since emerging from a bankruptcy restructuring four years ago, Postmedia has moved to remake its business, emphasizing its digital operations. After a recent redesign, the Ottawa Citizen has different versions tailored for tablets, smartphones, computer screens and print.
Waddell said that it was unclear how Sun Media advances Postmedia’s strategy since Sun Media has been a relative laggard online. However, Godfrey said that “even if we do nothing at all” the combination of the two companies’ online operations would have a larger number of users than the government-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corp, the current digital news leader in Canada.
Such an acquisition would have been highly controversial decades ago. In the past, authorities and politicians looked askance at media companies running more than one newspaper in a single city as well as nationwide concentration of ownership.
Postmedia’s own core holdings were created through acquisitions by Conrad Black, who bought up a chain of dailies across the country and then founded the National Post in Toronto. The scope of Black’s newspaper holdings became a highly political issue.
However, this deal may not rankle, even though Postmedia will own both daily newspapers in several Canadian cities, including Ottawa; Edmonton, Alberta; Calgary, Alberta; and Vancouver, British Columbia.
The landscape has changed, Godfrey said, adding that Postmedia and its predecessor companies have been allowed to own and operate both dailies in Vancouver for more than three decades.
“Newspapers are not the chief competitors to each other now,” he said.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS