Bay Street gives sign of support for newspapers

Torstar saw its shares rise almost 20 per cent in one day yesterday when a bank analyst upgraded it as a potential investment. TD Newcrest rated it “action list buy”,  the  highest ranking TD assigns to a stock. Interestingly, TD rates the community weekly newspapers Torstar owns, not its flagship daily, as the main driver of corporate revenue. Investors have just bought a huge amount of stock; wonder how the other chains will fare (outside bankrupt Canwest) as their quarterlies come out, particularly Quebecor, whose Sun chain has been struggling with advertisers for some time.

Financial Post, March 3 2010

British Library to archive old web sites

It had to happen sometime: the British Library is going to archive old websites before they vanish into the ether. It’s a good idea; archives have already been saving radio and television programs, and old movies. But does now mean that the internet world is now “old” media, which as we all know is decidedly inferior to new media? Anyway, the web has been around for quite some time, and mainstream since the mid-90′s.

Washington Post, March 2 2010

ABC looking at 25 per cent cuts

While ABC isn’t talking numbers, speculation is that it may slash 25 per cent of its workforce, and rely more on contract/freelancers. I seem to recall CBC doing this 20 years ago, but not having enough money to hire those magical freelancers. The quality of the news hasn’t been that good since, nor have their TV ratings improved (CBC radio one has held up pretty well over the past decade.)

Associated Press, Feb. 23 2010