Postmedia sells Victoria Times Colonist, weeklies

Well, the company that defines itself as “primarily in the large, urban newspaper business” (CEO Paul Godfrey), has sold the Victoria Times Colonist, a large urban newspaper, to Glacier Media, along with 20 community newspapers. The communities are a bit of an odd sale; they actually are profitable, money machines. Godfrey says he wants to pay down debt; surely one of the best ways to do that is keep your profitable enterprises and use them to pay down debt. And another way is to sell/close your unprofitable enterprises, like the National Post. The Times Colonist is another matter. The paper was added to the sale “following failed attempts to have the paper’s union agree to cost-cutting measures.” Might be tough times ahead for the union, though given it is a monopoly newspaper, the TC should be a money-maker anyway for Glacier. Maybe this is a harbinger of things to come; the Postmedia selling off its profitable bits until it’s left with the National Post, which then has to shut down because there is nobody left to subsidize it. Just hoping…

CanWest closes two TV stations

CHEK TV in Victoria and CHCA TV in Red Deer will be closed by CanWest by the end of August;  two other subsidiary stations have been sold (Hamilton and Montreal) and Kelowna will be rebranded as a Global affiliate. So, the death toll rises as CanWest faces another deadline — July 31 — to come up with some kind of plan to pay down its debts and deal with its creditors. It’s not over yet; at some point the creditors and investors are going to lose patience and put CanWest into bankruptcy to sell off as much as possible and get some of their money back.

CBC, July 22 2009