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Newspapers going down even faster


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#301 Mike K.

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Posted 18 June 2021 - 11:06 AM

...and Christ, even Bulg is ahead of us on the vaccine rollout. EffML...


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#302 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 19 July 2022 - 01:18 PM

screenshot-www.youtube.com-2022.07.19-17_17_25.png

 

https://youtu.be/p1agAgF46NQ



#303 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 27 August 2022 - 11:45 AM

It's part of why Canada's largest Chinese-language daily newspaper, Sing Tao Daily, has stopped printing across the country. After 44 years of circulating in Canada, its last publication date is on Saturday.

https://www.cbc.ca/n...niors-1.6561457

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 27 August 2022 - 11:45 AM.


#304 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 30 September 2022 - 05:51 AM

Court asked to force sale of Toronto Star as two owners have 'irreconcilable views' on future of media giant

 

Much of the friction between Jordan Bitove and Paul Rivett seems to be about finances, but also in a battle over their vision for Torstar

 

https://nationalpost...-of-media-giant



#305 AllseeingEye

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Posted 03 October 2022 - 11:05 PM

"Torstar" always brings back good memories for me not because of the entity itself but rather because they were the initial funding source for my old outfit JCI Technologies, way back 30+ years ago when this commercial internet thingy really began to get traction. Back then we - all of fifteen staff - were based in a modest, non-descript two floor structure on W Saanich Road just a block up from the Med Grill restaurant. 

 

Torstar provided the initial $2.5 million bucks of venture capital to give JCI its 'wings' in 1990-1 then upped the ante by funnelling an addition $4.5 million tranche eighteen months later to allow us to really expand and fund operations which included the radical ideas of putting jobs/careers, real estate, and automobiles online. Those were some heady days as we truly were in uncharted digital operations and advertising territory. We really felt like with Torstar's backing we were on our way to changing the online landscape in terms of careers, real estate and automobile purchases, not just in BC or Canada but potentially well beyond...

 

That second infusion of capital and the aforementioned expansion of our BC and Canada operations it afforded, brought us to the attention of some outfit in Redmond WA called Microsoft, ultimately allowing us to become only the second Canadian firm with a link to the then-vaunted Microsoft ("MSN") Network - sounded exciting although none of us really had a clue what that actually meant. An actual exchange between me and the CIO after our exes returned from a meeting in Redmond pretty much summed up the totality of our understanding of the momentous event and formal onboarding of our small firm with the world's largest software company:

 

CIO: "we did it....we're signed on and confirmed as a direct link and online portal on and to the MSN. The potential is truly global!!"

Me: "Awesome Matt!! Great job.....um, what does that mean for us exactly? How do we monetise it...how do we make_money?!"

CIO: "Not sure....hell if I know. Details "TBD". Makes for good PR though. Come on lets join the others in the bar to celebrate...!"

 

Not exactly a classic blueprint for a coherent corporate growth strategy - but it sure was a hell of a lot of fun and wild 4.5 year run while it lasted. And of course I was dead certain those five THOUSAND JCI shares I was sitting on were going to form the basis of an extremely profitable and comfortable financial future...!

 

At one time JCI was one of the largest private tech firms in Victoria, peaking at about 150 staff in 1993, with signed business deals with real estate boards and auto dealers in BC, Alberta and eastern Canada, and another 75 staff in a call center that we set up in New Brunswick. It all came tumbling down naturally after Torstar - which itself never did figure out a workable digital strategy for its own core operations, never mind a fledgling outfit it controlled way out on the west coast backwater of Victoria - finally shut off the financial tap in 1995-6.


Edited by AllseeingEye, 03 October 2022 - 11:08 PM.

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#306 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 18 November 2022 - 06:22 AM

Bitove, who is publisher of the Toronto Star, emphasized at Thursday’s event the importance of the paper as a civic institution and its adherence to its guiding social principles, while Rivett pushed on the need to diversify revenue streams through experiments like the company’s foray into online gambling because the organization is losing about $1 million a week.

 

Bitove said the dispute was a “massive distraction” from efforts to turn operations around.

 

“What kills me inside is we had such great momentum … the best thing is a quick divorce so we can allow our team to move forward,” he said.

 

Rivett, speaking at a press scrum after the event, said the two were working as fast as they could to get it resolved, with a likely resolution in weeks rather than months.

 

 

 

https://nationalpost...-reconciliation

 

 

 

 

He said that for a news organization like the Star to succeed, there also needs to be more collaboration between the sales and news sides of the business.

 

“If we want to have advertising on snow tires, we can’t just be constantly writing that we shouldn’t have cars.”

 

Rivett was previously president at Fairfax Financial, while Bitove was part of the ownership consortium that built the SkyDome, now the Rogers Centre.


Edited by Victoria Watcher, 18 November 2022 - 06:24 AM.


#307 AllseeingEye

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Posted 18 November 2022 - 10:14 AM

TORStar for years has been that impending train wreck you know is coming but can't take your eyes off of....



#308 Mike K.

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Posted 18 November 2022 - 10:23 AM

How is it, these these massive corporations can stand to lose unfathomable sums of money, and to do it for years on end?

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#309 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 18 November 2022 - 10:33 AM

They spend $60 million to buy it. Proceed to lose $1 million per week.

#310 Nparker

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Posted 18 November 2022 - 10:46 AM

How is it, these these massive corporations can stand to lose unfathomable sums of money, and to do it for years on end?

...Torstar also took funding from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s $595 million media bailout in 2019. These subsidies consisted of payroll rebates of $13,750 per employee at newsrooms approved by the Canadian government as “qualified Canadian journalism organizations"...


https://tnc.news/202...xpayer-dollars/


#311 Mike K.

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Posted 18 November 2022 - 10:58 AM

I guess the business model is for more government funding, then.


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#312 Nparker

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Posted 18 November 2022 - 11:04 AM

"Newsrooms approved by the Canadian government as qualified Canadian journalism organizations"

Translation: As long as you never criticize or question JT's government your funding is approved.



#313 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 08 December 2022 - 04:08 AM

Hundreds of journalists and other employees at The New York Times began a 24-hour walkout Thursday, the first strike of its kind at the newspaper in more than 40 years.

 

Newsroom employees and other members of The NewsGuild of New York say they are fed up with bargaining that has dragged on since their last contract expired in March 2021. The union announced last week that more than 1,100 employees would stage a 24-hour work stoppage starting at 12:01 a.m. Thursday unless the two sides reach a contract deal.

 

https://www.syracuse...-on-strike.html

 

 

 

As of tonight,  the company continues to run employee’s health funds at a loss. Management continues to refuse the $65K salary floor proposed by the Times Guild and their wage proposal still fails to meet the economic moment, lagging far behind both inflation and the average rate of wage gains in the U.S. Over the life of the contract, their offer now amounts to an annual raise of only 2.875 percent. 

 

The last work stoppage of this scale was a multi-day Guild-initiated strike in September and October of 1965. There was a 88-day pressmen strike in 1978 and in 1981, the Guild struck for 6.5 hours. 

 

https://www.nyguild....-from-the-table


Edited by Victoria Watcher, 08 December 2022 - 04:10 AM.


#314 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 08 December 2022 - 10:54 AM

Babylon Bee:

 

 

Disinformation Down 92% As NYT Writers Go On Strike

 

Researchers are reporting that disinformation on Twitter, Facebook, and mainstream news sources is already down by 92% in the wake of a 24-hour writer's strike at the New York Times.

 

"We always wondered where all this harmful disinformation was coming from," said Darryl Ball, a researcher with the Center for Combatting Bad Things Online. "Turns out, it was all coming from those knuckleheads at the Times. Who knew?"

 

Several studies indicate the country has seen a sharp decrease in hate speech, foreign propaganda, and shockingly dumb hot takes since the entire writing staff walked out of the building in New York City, which experts believe could lead to an outbreak of peace and harmony across the nation.

 

 

 

https://babylonbee.c...rs-go-on-strike


Edited by Victoria Watcher, 08 December 2022 - 10:54 AM.


#315 Mike K.

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Posted 08 December 2022 - 11:02 AM

It sounds like Overstory Media Group, which runs Cap Daily, has let go some staff at the Burnaby Beacon.

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#316 Jacques Cadé

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Posted 08 December 2022 - 12:47 PM

^ Yes, burnabybeacon.com showed managing editor + three reporters on December 1, now only managing ed and one reporter.



#317 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 08 December 2022 - 12:53 PM

https://twitter.com/dustbobgod

 

screenshot-twitter.com-2022.12.08-15_53_13.png



#318 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 08 December 2022 - 12:57 PM

Somehow I had missed this:

 

 

 

 

 

The Victoria-based media company will be taking over the vaunted Vancouver publication

 

The Georgia Straight is getting its third owner in 55 years.  

Right before the pandemic, the previously independently owned Straight was sold to Toronto-based Media Central Corporation, which had also purchased Toronto’s Now magazine. Both the publications fell on hard times, and Media Central ended up declaring bankruptcy in March of this year.  

 

https://www.bcbusine...eorgia-Straight

 

Now, Overstory Media Group (OMG), which owns community news organizations across the country like Halifax’s The Coast and Victoria’s Capital Daily, as well as local outlets Vancouver Tech JournalFraser Valley Current and Burnaby Beacon, has purchased the Straight. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

 

___________________

 

That plan includes, for the time being, printing the physical version of the newspaper. None of OMG’s current publications have print versions. “We’re looking to see how we can keep print going,” says Mohamed, noting that the Straight stopped printing weekly over the past month.

“There are hundreds of thousands of people across Vancouver and the Lower Mainland that depend on the Straight. So we’re going to talk to people, and try to understand what they want and need, and think about how we can continue to keep it going in that way. We’ve got all these street boxes all over the place—what’s going to make sense? How can we keep it sustainable and keep it around for another half century or more?” 

 

 

 

 

Overstory Media Group bought the Straight in late September, after the previous owners had ceased printing the paper. Today, we’ve released our first newsletter under new ownership.

 

https://www.straight...or-the-straight


Edited by Victoria Watcher, 08 December 2022 - 01:01 PM.


#319 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 08 December 2022 - 01:02 PM

January 2020:

 

 

Georgia Straight sold to Media Central Corp. for $1.25M

 

 

The Georgia Straight currently has an estimated 2.7 million readers of its print edition, and another 1.8 million readers online.

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...-deal-1.5416101


Edited by Victoria Watcher, 08 December 2022 - 01:02 PM.


#320 Matt R.

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Posted 08 December 2022 - 04:55 PM

OMG somehow invested in a Victoria based hospitality group on Facebook.  How does a company even invest in a Facebook group?  And why?



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