The Media

It was announced this week that advanced negotiations are underway for an effective merger between Nordstar Capital, the publisher of the Toronto Star and the Metroland suburban newspapers, and Postmedia, which publishes this newspaper as well as the Sun newspapers and the principal English-language daily newspapers in Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. This is not surprising, as both companies have been losing money, which is a process that even our governments in all their profligacy will eventually discover cannot continue indefinitely. The commercial advantage of such an arrangement would be to merge the business aspects of the two companies, while maintaining editorial separation: the savings would be considerable, at no cost to editorial quality.

It would be ironic, to say the least, if a bill purporting to save the Canadian news media were instead to hasten its demise. But that seems to be where we are heading with Bill C-18, the Online News Act.

According to Oxford University’s Reuters Institute, 47% of people are interested in the news, down from 63% in 2017. In the UK, the proportion is even lower.

What’s more 36% of people worldwide say they sometimes or often actively avoid the news.

Burnout?

In what may be a sign of information overload, the authors of the report said that there is evidence that audiences “continue to selectively avoid important stories such as the war in Ukraine and the cost-of-living crisis as they cut back on depressing news and look to protect their mental health,” according to the BBC.

TORONTO – BCE Inc. is cutting 1,300 positions, around three per cent of its workforce, and closing or selling nine radio stations as the company plans to “significantly adapt” how it delivers the news.

The company says the job cuts are in response to unfavourable public policy and regulatory conditions that it can no longer outwait.

The plan entails “moving to a single newsroom approach across brands, allowing for greater collaboration and efficiency,” said Richard Gray, vice-president of news at Bell Media, in an internal memo distributed to staff Wednesday morning and provided to The Canadian Press.

A cease-and-desist letter has reportedly been sent to Tucker Carlson from his previous employer Fox News over his new Twitter show that went public last week.

The chief executive of CNN has stepped down after just 13 months in the job.

Chris Licht had been been under pressure after a recent article about him in the Atlantic magazine, for which he provided an unusual level of access, raised questions about his leadership.

The news network has also seen falling ratings and was widely criticised for its handling of a town hall interview with former president Donald Trump.

Parent company Discovery said “things did not work out the way we had hoped”.

Employees of CNN have expressed frustration and anger following a brutal exposé published in The Atlantic focused on newly-appointed CEO Chris Licht.

Brian Stelter, a former chief media correspondent who spent nearly a decade with CNN before leaving last August, publicized the sentiments of several employees admitting they were completely blindsided by the piece, written by Tim Alberta.