Canwest Papers Up For Sale

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Canwest Papers Up For Sale

Postby radiofan » Fri Jan 08, 2010 10:49 am

Canwest newspapers up for sale
Creditor protection sought even as acquisition plan announced
Last Updated: Friday, January 8, 2010 | 12:42 PM ET


Canwest Global Communications Corp. has put its newspaper publishing unit under bankruptcy protection, even as it announced its lenders have bid to buy the division outright.

In a Toronto courtroom on Friday, the Canwest Limited Partnership filed for creditor protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. The unit holds all of Canwest's newspaper and online operations, with the notable exception of the National Post.

The Winnipeg-based company's main television assets were put under court protection in October, but thus far, the publishing assets have operated outside that process.

Along with the creditor protection filing, a group of the erstwhile media conglomerate's lenders have also bid to acquire the unit's assets, and create an entirely new company in the process.

The lenders have also pledged to put up $25 million to carry the affected business units through the restructuring process.

The entire proposal still requires the approval of a majority of the company's debtors. The company has hired RBC Capital Markets "to canvass the market for superior offers for the business," a Canwest release said.

"As part of the CCAA filing, senior secured lenders have presented a fair, reasonable and fully financed proposal to acquire the whole of the company's business as a going concern," said a statement from McMillan LLP, a counsel to the company's lenders throughout its lengthy restructuring process.

"It is envisioned that the new company would retain substantially all of Canwest LP's employees and would assume all … obligations related to pensions and benefits."

The filing is not necessarily a threat to the company's many newspapers across the country, experts say.

"I don't think it means anything shuts down immediately," Ross Howard, a journalism instructor at Langara College in B.C., told CBC News.

"Most of their newspapers across the country have been operating close to profitable … so I don't think it means we lose the Vancouver Sun or the Province or the Courier or any of the weeklies in the immediate future."

Canwest LP owns and operates a host of daily and community newspapers across the country, including the Victoria Times Colonist, the Vancouver Sun, the Vancouver Province, the Edmonton Journal, the Calgary Herald, the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, the Regina Leader-Post, the Windsor Star, the Ottawa Citizen and The Gazette in Montreal.

With files from The Canadian Press

http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2010/01/0 ... paper.html
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Re: Canwest Papers Up For Sale

Postby Mike Cleaver » Fri Jan 08, 2010 2:58 pm

So who in his/her right mind is going to buy a newspaper(s)?
Talk about dead technology.
Most people I know read them on line if they read them at all.
With today's instant access to information, computers, laptops, netbooks, smart phones, hand held devices and tablets for reading print material electronically, the fishwrapper version is on it's last legs (fins?)
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Re: Canwest Papers Up For Sale

Postby jon » Fri Jan 08, 2010 3:19 pm

Not to mention the fact that, in an office environment, reading a newspaper on-line is also less obvious than with the paper version. In terms of looking like you are goofing off.

On the other hand, paper-based media is still the medium of choice while riding transit, at a restaurant or inside Tim Horton's. Or even at home if you are sitting on the chesterfield or ignoring your spouse at the dinner table.
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Re: Canwest Papers Up For Sale

Postby tuned » Sat Jan 09, 2010 2:30 pm

The Canwest newspapers are a bargain and will make money for their owners for the next hundred years. The billion dollar price tag put on the group is based on the 935 million that the secured creditors (ie the big banks) are owed. In typical Canadian fashion the big banks hope to get their money back and everyone else will get screwed. The newspapers are breaking even in what has been one of the more difficult economic environments in the last half century. They have managed to weather the storm of classified advertisements migrating online as well as their content being stolen and re-used by the likes of google for little in return. Basically things have hit rock bottom for newspapers which means it's the best time to invest in them. Anyone that thinks "newspapers" are going away is a fool. In a world of gossip and blogs, they are the most credible source of news and information that we have left. Newspapers have editors and journalistic standards. Sure they've been watered down in the past decade but then again so has everything else. One of the largest costs in operating a newspaper is the physical printing and distribution of the product. With the explosion of e-readers that expense will completely disappear as consumers adapt to the new technology. I believe the days of ripoff sites like the Huffington Post that steal most of their content are numbered. Newspapers in the next ten years will be in a position to get paid for their content instead of having it stolen from them. Canwest newspapers are in the best position to become very profitable E-Papers by virtue of their dominant position in the news marketplace.
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