The News Media
 in Canada
JOUR 350
 The News and Media Business

Week 7

From concern to anxiety
•	Davey’s Senate subcommittee on Mass Media failed to bring reform
•	Kent Commission report failed to bring reform
•	Canada had highest level of press ownership concentration in 1980s
•	since surpassed by Australia
•	Sun tabloid chain emerged as second dailies in some cities

Kent’s dire predictions
•	More ownership by conglomerates
•	with business interests outside media
•	Cross-media ownership
•	between print and broadcast media
•	Southam takeover by a cost-cutter
•	would eliminate quality journalism
•	Exercise of political power
•	by activist media owners

From anxiety to outrage
•	Events of late 1990s brought “third wave” of concern
•	Black took over Southam chain
•	launched overtly political National Post
•	and changed Canadian journalism
•	Radler’s cost-cutting threatened CP
•	saved by last-minute appeal
•	but Southam Fellowships killed off 
•	strike at the Calgary Herald broken

From bad to worse
•	Black sold Southam papers to CanWest Global in mid-2000
•	Canada’s third TV network
•	owned by Israel Asper of Winnipeg
•	former president of Manitoba Liberal Party 
•	Izzy Asper died in 2003
•	company now run by his children

Political Asperations
•	March 2001 David Asper wrote a column in Southam newspapers
•	criticized coverage of Shawinigate patronage scandal 
•	called it “remarkably unfair” 
•	opposition parties demand an inquiry
•	into concentration of media ownership
•	Copps launched Lincoln committee
•	into broadcasting, media ownership
•	report issued mid-2003

Centralizing in Winnipeg
•	Canwest announces national editorials Dec. 01
•	to be written at company headquarters
•	wave of journalistic concern ensued
•	eg. byline strike at Montreal Gazette
•	removed names from stories for two days
•	Halifax Daily News columnist quits
•	claimed his columns were changed  
•	to match the owners’ viewpoints
•	editor resigned, admitting they were
Aspers undeterred
•	papers begin anti-CBC campaign
•	censorship in Regina sees byline strike
•	speech coverage rewritten to favor CGC
•	40 former Southam executives run ad
•	call on government to restore local editorial independence 
•	Columbia Journalism Review article
•	reported on Asper machinations

Concern reaches flashpoint
•	Ottawa Citizen publisher Russell Mills
•	fired by Aspers in mid-2002
•	Citizen had run a four-page feature  on Shawinigate
•	and an editorial calling for Chretien to resign
•	firing prompted national controversy
•	criticized by International Press Institute

A second government inquiry
•	Senate launched study of news media in early 2003 
•	chaired by Sen. Joan Fraser
•	former editor of Montreal Gazette
•	hearings adjourned due to Lincoln’s Parliamentary inquiry
•	Interim Report issued April 2004
•	hearings have now resumed 

The Lincoln Report
•	Issued in mid-2003 – 900 pages
•	Made three main recommendations:
•	Moratorium on broadcast licences for companies that own newspapers
•	Continuation of limits on foreign ownership 
•	Increased funding for the CBC
•	Got very little publicity