04.22.2010 07:00 AM

National Post, R.I.P.

“Sources indicate a bid that includes newspaper owner Torstar Corp. is now emerging as a favourite, since it is expected to involve more cash than other offers.

The publisher of the Toronto Star and 97 other Ontario papers is backed by the deep pockets of Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., which owns 19 per cent of Torstar.

Torstar would come aboard as the operator of the CanWest papers, but would limit its exposure by contributing a relatively small amount of its own money, while relying on the financial muscle of Fairfax, the insurance company headed by Prem Watsa.

Among the CanWest assets, Torstar is believed to covet the Financial Post to bolster its flagship paper, the Star.”

What’s it mean, if true?

It means the Post is well and truly screwed.  The Star would gut the “National” Post for the only part of the paper that is still read, the FP, and likely discard the rest.

11 Comments

  1. bigcitylib says:

    Jonathon Kay, flipping burgers! I see it all so clearly.

  2. Mike says:

    Hope this means Terence Corcoran will retire — finally some peace and quiet.

  3. Martin says:

    Please, let it be true…..

  4. Michael S says:

    I’d love to see Corcoran being given the option of signing off on the Atkinson Principles or shoving off.

  5. CQ says:

    Torstar, already with 20% of CTVglobemedia, plus CHUM, and now Canwest Newspapers – combined through a single source ‘real money’ foreign U.S. investment stake. Where’s that Competition Bureau rubber stamp?

  6. Reality.Bites says:

    I’d suggest they tear down the NP building and sow the ground with salt so that nothing ever grows there again, but nothing ever grew there in the first place.

  7. A. says:

    “The Star would gut the “National” Post for the only part of the paper that is still read, the FP, and likely discard the rest.”

    That pretty much describes most people who buy the Post anyway.

  8. WDM says:

    As long as someone hires Bruce Arthur asap, I’m good.

  9. parnel says:

    Lets hope the Torstar bunch are not tacking to the right and wanting to use the NP as its masthead. I don’t believe that to be the case but one never knows.

  10. Reality.Bites says:

    Nothing could keep them afloat because no one wanted to read it. And the Torstar bunch certainly wouldn’t want to use the NP as its masthead for the same reason.

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