Good day for Torstar, bad day for Newsweek

Torstar reported a profit of $7.4 million for the first quarter, moving the newspaper group back to profitability (its 2009 1Q was a loss of $21.4 million.) Most of the profit came from cuts, of which more are apparently under way, bad news no doubt for the newsroom (how about laying off overpaid, underproducing executives, where you could save some real money.) Anyhoo, its bid for the CanWest papers proceeds, even though Torstar owns 20 per cent of CTVglobemedia; wonder what the Competition Bureau would say about its also owning CanWest papers? Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports Newsweek magazine is on the block, as all newsmagazines suffer the reality of reporting seven day old news in the Internet age.

Report on Business, May 6 2010