Download - Printed Matter: Canadian Newspapers Presented by: Bradley Karelson, Charlotte Peer and Greg Gerber
Printed Matter: Canadian Newspapers
Presented by: Bradley Karelson, Charlotte Peer and Greg Gerber
Table of Contents
• 1 – History/Overview
• 2 – Newspaper Consumption
• 3 – Newspaper Advertising
• 4 – Newspaper and Media
Ownership
Recent History Overview
• A century ago– Newspapers serving different
markets were independently owned by proprietors who themselves resided in those markets
• Today– Chain ownership; corporate control;
cross-media holdings
Recent History Overview
• Problems?– distortion across issuers
• In spite of this…– Canadian newspaper readership is
strong
• Newspapers as the foundation of Canadian information culture
Newspaper Consumption
• Widespread news distribution
• Consumed in very large numbers– 57% of Canadians over the age of 18 report
reading a paper on average each weekday– 64% read a paper on the weekend– 83% report having read one in the past week
Advertising
• Largest advertising medium in Canada
• Retail ads – 46%• Classified – 34%• National Ads - 20%
Advertising Revenue Breakdown
– Advertising rates set the size of circulation
– Cutting back on costs requires internal adjustments
– Paradigm…
Case Study
2001 Canadian Daily Newspaper Circulation by Ownership
Owner # of Papers Weekly Circulation Ave. Issue Circulation
Southam Publications 27 11,437,605 1,792,906
Quebecor Inc. 15 6,968,043 1,019,809
Torstar 5 4,621,724 686,851
Power Corp. of Canada 7 3,049,424 458,115
Bell/Globemedia 1 2,185,663 364,277
Osprey Media 18 1,536,963 247,021
Canadian Newspapers Co. 2 1,039,837 148,548
Halifax-Herald Ltd. 2 713,870 104,731
Brunswick News Inc. 3 675,278 116,472
Horizon 5 630,319 93,232
Hollinger Cdn. N.L.P. 10 326,277 59,361
Independents 5 314,700 57,078
Black Press 1 114,388 19,065
Annex Publ. & Printing 2 94,125 17,125
Newspaper and Media Ownership
• Past regulations:– The Davey Report (1970)– The Kent Commission (1981)
• Recent regulations:– New CRTC Regulations (2008)
The Davey Report (1970)
• Investigated the influence and concentration of ownership in Canada that was previously unregulated
• Recommendation of report: establish Press Ownership Review Board
Then Kent Comission (1981)
• First Canadian inquiry directly concerned with newspapers
• Series of studies to determine:– Extent of ownership across Canada– Responsibility of the newspaper
industry to the public– How the newspaper functioned as a
business– Functioning of the newsroom– Quality of public affairs reporting– Quality of journalism– Future of the newspaper industry
CRTC Regulations (2008)
• To restrict cross-media ownership as a way of ensuring a diversity of editorial voices in the same market
• A person or entity will be permitted to control only 2 of 3 types of media outlets – radio, TV, or newspapers – in a single market
Major Points• 1 – Newspapers are the foundation of an
information culture
• 2 – Newspaper revenues based largely on advertising
• 3 – The country employs regulations
(from The Davey Report and the
Kent Commission) to prevent
concentrated ownership and to
encourage journalistic diversity.