Scotiabank now Canada's biggest publisher

[joeblow]

Friday, January 8, 2010 12:09 PM
Scotiabank now Canada's biggest publisher

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/st ... le1423962/

Andrew Willis

Call them the accidental publishers: Bank of Nova Scotia is now the largest owner of newspapers in Canada, and seems likely to hold that unintended role for some time.

Lenders took control of CanWest L.P. on Friday, a long-expected move at the debt-heavy chain, as the company filed for protection from creditors. Scotiabank (BNS-T47.460.551.17%) is the lead player among senior lenders to this subsidiary of CanWest Global Communications, so the bank has the honour of running this process. (The parent company filed for creditor protection last year.)

Scotiabank CEO Rick Waugh will likely chuckle at the fact that he's the latest incarnation of newspaper barons Conrad Black and Randolph Hearst.

Scotiabank and the other senior lenders are now what's known as stalking horse bidders for the chain, as their restructuring plan - already nicknamed the "AA Agreement" by the company - with CanWest LP represents a clear, viable structure for the company. The newspaper chain has total debt of $1.3-billion.

In the absence of any other offer for the chain, which includes 11 big-city papers and a host of community publications, the creditors swap their loans for equity, and run the company. Scotiabank and the other senior lenders are expected to get 100 cents on the dollar for the debts, while the outcome is far less certain for junior creditors.

However, Scotiabank and the rest of CanWest L.P.'s lenders would be thrilled to hand the entire chain over to any buyer willing to pay down their loans, strike a deal with the remaining creditors, and take a stab out of making money in newspapers.

RBC Dominion Securities was officially recognized Friday for running an auction of the newspaper that in reality has been playing out for some time.

The problem is, no one is buying the entire chain. Sources close to both CanWest and other Canadian media companies say regional players may have an interest in one or two papers in the chain - Montreal and Ottawa, for example - but there is no buyer for the whole lot.

Scotiabank and the rest of CanWest LP's lenders, and executives at the newspaper chain, see keeping the papers together as the best way to maximize value for the company.

The most likely future for CanWest LP is as an independent, pure-play newspaper company, with lenders cashing in by staging an initial public offering the moment the market seems receptive.

[Anonymous]

I bet Conrad Black is laughing so hard he falls out of his bunk and hits his head on the floor :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

[Anonymous]

Wanna bet the Bank of Nova Scotia doesn't bite the big one on this issue?
The amount of REAL debt involved is probably closer to a trillion, if not more...
Some very peculiar statements (WARNINGS) are coming from the Bank of Canada...AND THE GOVERNMENT!!
Parliament has been suspended.

[Anonymous]

Commander...we have spotted a cloud of dust just over the horizon....over.
Private....report to me once you have identified the source....over
Commander.....it appears to be a large group of small men, dressed in black, astride a herd of burros....SIR!
Private.....FOR CHRISTS sake son....its the Jews!!!!
Their riding in to steal the assets, for less than a dollar!
Commander....should we employ our Jewish defense experts....over.
Private...what are their numbers?...over.
Commander....there are over 666 of them....over.
Private....then simply send your best ONE.

[Christopher Marlowe]

From Wikipedia:

Canwest is often cited as an example of how the ownership of Canadian media has become concentrated in the hands of a few individuals and large corporations. Canwest founder Izzy Asper was known as a strong supporter of both Canada's Liberal Party and Israel's right-wing Likud party, and of many laissez-faire policies in both countries. Observers have suggested that Asper's political views have had a significant impact on news coverage at CanWest media outlets. For example, in 2002, Ottawa Citizen publisher Russell Mills was fired by Canwest after the paper published a series of articles exposing a financial scandal involving then Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.

Weird! An ardent zionist running a media chain. How utterly strange!

Current members of the board of directors of the company are: David Drybrough, Leonard Asper, David Asper, Gail Asper, Lloyd Barber, Derek Burney, Robert Daniels, Paul Godfrey, Frank King, and Lisa Pankratz.

Former members of the board of directors of the company include: Izzy Asper and Frank McKenna.

Since the 2000 acquisition of the major former Canadian newspaper holdings of Conrad Black's Hollinger International (now Sun-Times Media Group), including Canwest News Service, opposition has been expressed by some journalists, union spokespersons, politicians, and pundits about Canwest's enforcement of its corporate editorial positions. A 2001 decision to run regular uniform national editorials in all metropolitan dailies (except National Post), whereby local editorial boards could not take local positions on subjects of national editorials, ignited major national controversy and was subsequently withdrawn.

Conflict over Canwest editorial control and policy has focused in particular on three issues:

    * The Liberal Party of Canada. Since Israel Asper's leadership of the Manitoba Liberal Party, the Asper family has been identified with Liberal politics and politicians. In July 2001, Southam national affairs columnist Lawrence Martin was fired after a column of his critical of Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chrétien was not published. Russell Mills, longtime publisher of The Ottawa Citizen, was fired in June 2002 after the newspaper called on Chrétien to resign. However, as of 2006, at least one Asper family member (David Asper) is now publicly supporting the Conservatives.
    * The government of Israel and conflict in the Middle East. Veteran Montreal Gazette reporter Bill Marsden has said that the Aspers "do not want any criticism of Israel. We do not run in our newspaper op-ed pieces that express criticism of Israel and what it is doing." A study released in 2006 by the Near East Cultural and Educational Foundation of Canada found that the National Post was 83.3 times more likely to report an Israeli child's death than a Palestinian child's death in its news articles' headlines or first paragraphs. In 2008 Canwest launched a lawsuit against the Palestine Media Collective for producing a newspaper parody of The Vancouver Sun that satirized this bias. In 2004, the Reuters news agency protested after Canwest altered newswire stories about the Iraq war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, such that Reuters felt it had inserted Canwest's own bias under Reuters bylines. The changes were apparently made in accordance with a Canwest policy to label certain groups as terrorists.
    * Canwest editorial control and management itself. In December 2001, 77 staff members at The Montreal Gazette signed a letter and launched a web page, Media Giant Silences Local Voices: Canadian Journalism Under Attack, opposing the national editorial policy, and the reporters among them participated in a byline strike, refusing to sign their names to their stories in the newspaper in protest. Management responded with a gag order. The next year, several journalists left The Halifax Daily News over similar conflicts, and ten journalists at The Regina Leader-Post were reprimanded or suspended after a byline strike to protest censorship of coverage of a speech in Regina by Toronto Star columnist and Canwest critic Haroon Siddiqui.

Upon acquiring Southam's Newspapers from Hollinger International, Israel Asper continued Conrad Black's policy of 'blacklisting' influential Canadian world and military affairs journalist Gwynne Dyer's internationally published articles. This antipathy was prompted by Dyer's views on conflict in the Middle East and his opposition to neoconservatism, which run contrary to the ideological views of Asper and others on Canwest's board of directors then and today. Partially as a response to this, Dyer published a collection of his articles on the Middle East and related topics called With Every Mistake in 2005.

Canwest newspapers and broadcast outlets in British Columbia are regularly criticized for giving a "free ride" to the BC Liberal government of Premier Gordon Campbell, especially in relation to the scandals and controversies ensuing from the privatization of BC Rail but also in cooperating with the government's manipulation of information for political purposes, such as the suppression of the actual scale of the deficit or welfare rates in advance of the 2009 election. Conversely, coverage of the New Democratic Party is criticized as being unfairly negative. Canwest is one of the major campaign contributors to the BC Liberal party and gives regular column space to pundits from the conservative libertarian think tank, the Fraser Institute (one such regular contributor being the Premier's brother, Michael).

Holdings (From Columbia Journalism Review: http://www.cjr.org/resources/index.php?c=canwest)
The Publishing division is CanWest LP
The publishing division, which posted revenue of $1.021-billion and operating profit of $180-million in the last fiscal year ended Aug. 31, holds about $1.4-billion in debt, much of that from the buyback of a 25% stake in 2007 for just under half a billion dollars. As of the last fiscal year, it had a book value of $644.9-million and available cash of $43.4-million.(http://www.globalmaritimes.com/money/Ca ... story.html)
Publishing
    National Post
    St. John's Telegram
    Montreal Gazette
    Ottawa Citizen
    Windsor Star
    Regina Leader Post
    Saskatoon Star Phoenix
    Calgary Herald
    Edmonton Journal
    Vancouver Sun
    Vancouver Province
    Victoria Times-Colonist
Other Publications
    The Van Net Newspaper Group
    The Vancouver Island Newspaper Group
    Windsor-Essex Community Papers

The other holding company is Canwest Media Inc. (CMI). When CMI sold its majority stake in Australian broadcaster Ten Network Holdings Ltd., it had about $950-million in total debt.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/C ... story.html
Television
    Global Television Network
    CH Hamilton
    CH Vancouver Island
    CH in Montreal
    CHBC - Kelowna, British Columbia
    CKRD - Red Deer, Alberta
    Prime TV
    Men TV
    Mystery
    DejaView
    Lonestar
    Fox Sportsworld Canada
    Xtreme Sports

[Anonymous]

Back in 1999 I played black-jack with Izzy Asper at the table in the Crystal Palace casino in Winnipeg.
He was a real joker, a CARD always laughing and poking fun at the dealer.
Like any other Jew, he really whined when he was losing....
The dealers despised him.

[Anonymous]

I always found it to be held in my best interests to be courteous to the dealers at all times, to compliment them and tip them well.
I was always repaid in kind...with a wink here or a nod there to either hammer him or get up and run.