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Victoria Times Colonist


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#1 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 08 March 2013 - 09:47 AM

This was a week or so ago.

Bob McKenzie, the publisher of the Times Colonist since 2004, announced Tuesday that he was stepping down from the helm of what he called “the best newspaper in B.C.”

His replacement has not yet been named.

McKenzie, 63, has worked in the newspaper industry for 46 years.

His long career in newspapers started in Oakville, Ont., where he grew up.

He went to work, straight from school, in 1967 in the circulation department of the Oakville Journal-Record, which no longer publishes.

He served as publisher of newspapers in half a dozen communities from coast to coast, including St. Catharines, Ont., Nanaimo, Vernon, Kelowna, Niagara Falls, Ont. and St. John’s, NL.

He was publisher of the Nanaimo Daily News from 1999 to 2001 and the director of reader sales and service at the Times Colonist from 1985 to 1988.

Before taking the job as the Times Colonist’s publisher, he was general manager of the National Post in Toronto.


<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#2 Mr Cook Street

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Posted 08 March 2013 - 10:37 AM

Interesting to note that in the interim David Radler - Conrad Black's old partner in crime - is the replacement.

#3 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 08 March 2013 - 11:04 AM

Interesting to note that in the interim David Radler - Conrad Black's old partner in crime - is the replacement.


No way, that's too funny.
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#4 Mike K.

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Posted 08 March 2013 - 03:17 PM

A little more on Mr. Radler c/o Wikipedia:

Radler was eventually charged with five counts of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud. On September 20, 2005, Radler pleaded guilty in a Chicago court to one count of mail fraud in relation to the 'non-compete' payments.

These payments had been diverted by Radler to a company controlled by himself and Black, Horizon Publications Inc. By disguising the payments as 'non-compete' payments, non sales proceeds, Radler took advantage of a Canadian tax ruling that made them tax-exempt. The prosecution argued that these moneys belonged to Hollinger International, and had been improperly and secretly diverted to Black and Radler.

Radler was sentenced to a fine of $250,000 and a term of 29 months in prison. He had been assisting the prosecution in the investigation of his former business partner. Black is currently being tried on the many charges; his trial began in Chicago in March 2007. Patrick Fitzgerald is the lead prosecutor in the Black case, and Black is represented by a legal team which includes Toronto lawyer Edward Greenspan.

In the fall of 2005, Queen's University, Radler's alma mater, returned the financial donation which Radler had given to its School of Business. It was widely reported at the time that a Toronto hospital had no intention of returning Conrad Black's financial gift. This prompted some to question the wisdom of Queen's returning David Radler's generous donation. The business school, for its part, explained that the charge that Mr Radler had pleaded guilty to was "very serious" and not congruent with the values of the school and those it teaches.

On March 18, 2007, it was reported that Mr. Radler had signed a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that will see him pay a penalty of almost US$29 million and prevent him from acting as an officer or director of any public company in the United States. The next day, it was announced that Mr. Radler has settled with the Sun-Times Media Group, agreeing to pay them $64.1 million. The news of the SEC settlement sparked protest from the defense at the Conrad Black trial; the defense claimed that such news would negatively influence the jury.

Radler started serving his 29-month sentence for fraud on February 25, 2008 by reporting to a Pennsylvania prison. He was turned over to Canadian authorities on September 18, 2008. It is believed that he was being held in a penal facility in British Columbia, although this cannot be confirmed.[2]

On Dec. 15, 2008, David Radler was granted a full parole and released from the Canadian penal facility in which he was being held. He served only 10 months of a 29-month sentence. He was released on the grounds that he was unlikely to "commit an offence involving violence" before his sentence expired. The board said it was limited to considering only the matter of physical violence and could not consider the financial devastation caused by his crimes or the many victims of these crimes left in its wake.[3] Mr. Radler is now back at work in his office in Vancouver running his business, the Alberta Newspaper Group.[4]


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#5 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 10 April 2013 - 07:11 AM

I got paywalled on TC mobile for the first time today. :mad:
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#6 sdwright.vic

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Posted 10 April 2013 - 08:20 AM

I got paywalled on TC mobile for the first time today. :mad:


Not worth it since news always comes here first!
Predictive text and a tiny keyboard are not my friends!

#7 Sparky

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Posted 10 April 2013 - 08:48 AM

I got paywalled on TC mobile for the first time today. :mad:


Mrs Sparky and I bought a paper copy of the TC at the ferry terminal on Sunday to read on the ferry to Salt Spring.

The asking price in a machine for a Sunday paper was $1.75. I had to Pay $2.00 because I didn't have a pocket full of quarters.

This paper was as thin as the old Monday papers used to be. I am going to suggest that they will soon not have enough income to cover expenses from paper sales.

Good luck to them if they think the mobile crowd is going to save them.

#8 mysage

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Posted 10 April 2013 - 09:00 AM

Mrs Sparky and I bought a paper copy of the TC at the ferry terminal on Sunday to read on the ferry to Salt Spring.

The asking price in a machine for a Sunday paper was $1.75. I had to Pay $2.00 because I didn't have a pocket full of quarters.

This paper was as thin as the old Monday papers used to be. I am going to suggest that they will soon not have enough income to cover expenses from paper sales.

Good luck to them if they think the mobile crowd is going to save them.


You are right I think. There is too much "Free" news out there today for someone to pay. I think that the Black Press has the right business model. Advertisers pay the freight and the reader gets it for free.

#9 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 10 April 2013 - 09:07 AM

You are right I think. There is too much "Free" news out there today for someone to pay. I think that the Black Press has the right business model. Advertisers pay the freight and the reader gets it for free.


Advertisers also pay 90% of the TC freight, the circulation department eats up pretty much the whole home delivery and newsstand/vending machine money.

Black Press has the luxury of not "owing" anyone a paper, so if you get missed one week, or every week, or your driveway is long, your paper gets wet or is blown, too bad, they can pay their carriers less, as they require them to have less accuracy.
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#10 mysage

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Posted 10 April 2013 - 09:14 AM

Advertisers also pay 90% of the TC freight, the circulation department eats up pretty much the whole home delivery and newsstand/vending machine money.

Black Press has the luxury of not "owing" anyone a paper, so if you get missed one week, or every week, or your driveway is long, your paper gets wet or is blown, too bad, they can pay their carriers less, as they require them to have less accuracy.


Regardless. The big picture is that the current business model for any general news paper that is expecting to maintain let alone increase its circulation (and thus charge its advertisers based upon its circulation numbers) is doomed to fail in the long run. People today are much too tuned in to the information highway to need to pay for anything other than specialized information and that they can get in far more detail than that provided by the general "man bites dog" writer employed by the major dailies.

#11 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 10 April 2013 - 09:27 AM

Regardless. The big picture is that the current business model for any general news paper that is expecting to maintain let alone increase its circulation (and thus charge its advertisers based upon its circulation numbers) is doomed to fail in the long run. People today are much too tuned in to the information highway to need to pay for anything other than specialized information and that they can get in far more detail than that provided by the general "man bites dog" writer employed by the major dailies.


Don't get me wrong, I don't usually find myself defending the TC. Just stating the facts. Also, TC employees make 2-3x the wages that Black pays at his non-union papers (which is almost all of them). That does not make it easy for the TC. Reporters make $1543/week, as do all the key positions like press operators, ad sales reps etc. Supervisors make more. Plus they have pensions and other benefits.
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#12 mysage

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Posted 10 April 2013 - 09:29 AM

Don't get me wrong, I don't usually find myself defending the TC. Just stating the facts. Also, TC employees make 2-3x the wages that Black pays at his non-union papers (which is almost all of them). That does not make it easy for the TC.


Your right it doesn't make it easy. These are more reasons why it is a failing business model.

#13 Bingo

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Posted 10 April 2013 - 10:57 AM

Not worth it since news always comes here first!


Exactly!

This photograph that first appeared on VV was copied by the TC a few days later.




#14 Sparky

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Posted 10 April 2013 - 11:33 AM

^ Mike will not be happy about the copy part. Was it in the paper or digital?

#15 Bingo

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Posted 10 April 2013 - 11:39 AM

^ Mike will not be happy about the copy part. Was it in the paper or digital?


The TC took their own photo and did not copy VV's, but it was almost identical. I don't remember which day it appeared in the paper.

#16 Sparky

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Posted 10 April 2013 - 11:42 AM

OK thanks.

#17 jonny

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Posted 10 April 2013 - 11:53 AM

I think people still will and will continue to pay for commentary. I am willing to pay for commentary. Anybody can report the "news", it's the commentary that is the real content.

My biggest complaint with the TC is that, like mysage says, most of the content is of the "man bites dog" variety. Commentary either isn't there or is low quality. It also seems to have an identity crisis of whether or not it is a local paper or something more.

I do not look at the TC (web or paper) very much at all these days, but I can tell you that following VV will keep you much more in tuned with what's going on in Victoria than the TC ever will.

#18 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 10 April 2013 - 12:36 PM

The TC took their own photo and did not copy VV's, but it was almost identical. I don't remember which day it appeared in the paper.


Well, I took one photo and posted it the night the note went up, but the subject matter (a note and the door) means that their photo would not be much different. I'm not sure that's a big deal.
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#19 Bingo

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Posted 10 April 2013 - 12:57 PM

Well, I took one photo and posted it the night the note went up, but the subject matter (a note and the door) means that their photo would not be much different. I'm not sure that's a big deal.


I agree, but it is interesting that VV can submit opinions and photos from a host of contributors before they appear elsewhere in the local media.

#20 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 10 April 2013 - 01:20 PM

I agree, but it is interesting that VV can submit opinions and photos from a host of contributors before they appear elsewhere in the local media.


I'm not sure it's that surprising. The TC has only a limited number of reporters, and are they going to wait to get a call in the newsroom (slower, less frequent), or get leads from social media (fast, viral)?

Wiki:

As of March 2006, the newsroom of the Times Colonist was staffed by an estimated 12 full-time news reporters, a news columnist, two business reporters and three full-time photographers.


I think it's natural they'd get leads here, then hopefully follow up with more in-depth stories.
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

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