Category Archives: Post Media

The glitch in Postmedia’s digital switch

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Source: theglobeandmail
read entire story here

Paul Godfrey escorted directors of Postmedia Network Canada Corp. (PNC.A-T10.00—-%) on a tour of the Calgary Herald earlier this year to showcase the struggling newspaper company’s digital future.

The Postmedia chief executive officer presented a remodelled newsroom where teams juggled written and visual content for the Herald’s websites, social media platforms such as Twitter and its 128-year old newspaper. The Herald has been so much “quicker off the mark” with digital initiatives, Mr. Godfrey said, that it is now one of the company’s most profitable divisions, and a beacon for change at Canada’s largest newspaper publisher.

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Gazette locks out some production workers

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Source: The Montreal Gazette

 

About 20 full-time and a number of part-time employees who work at The Gazette’s production facility on St. Jacques St. in Notre Dame de Grâce were locked out Sunday night after rejecting the company’s final contract offer.

Employees in four other units affiliated with the Teamsters – pressmen, machinist-electricians, paper handlers and building services – approved new contracts in votes on Sunday.

The main stumbling blocks in negotiations between management and its locked-out workers are staffing, working hours and overtime pay.

Bob Pruden, vice-president of labour relations for Postmedia Network Inc., said the previous contract had minimum staffing provisions that are far beyond what is required today, given the changes in the newspaper industry.

“Everybody is aware of the impact that the Internet and new technology like iPads and so on have had on the newspaper business,” he said. “In terms of our circulation, the number of papers we produce and also the advertising in those papers and the advertising inserts have all declined significantly over the last five years covered by the previous collective agreement,” Pruden said on Monday.

Denis Fournier, negotiator for the Teamsters Local 41M, said he was disappointed with the employer’s decision. “Management agreed to leave a four-day week in place for the workers (in the four other units), while requiring the mailing and plate-making workers to work five days a week,” Fournier said.

The locked-out employees include two active members of the platemakers’ unit, positions the company wants to abolish, and fewer than 20 regular, full-time mailers. There are also a number of full-and part-time substitutes in the mailroom who are assigned their shifts by the union.

The Gazette will continue to publish uninterrupted during the lockout.

Postmedia a potential takeover target: RBC

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Source: bnn.ca

While Postmedia’s daily newspaper business continues to face strong headwinds from free dailies and growing online migration, its assets and mix of shareholders make it a potential takeover target, according to a report by RBC Capital Markets.

“Although the timing and/or likelihood of a potential transaction are highly uncertain, we believe investors could realize a takeout premium,” analyst Drew McReynolds said in a note to clients. “Potential strategic buyers could include Torstar, Woodbridge, Gesca and Transcontinental given the opportunities for cost synergies (i.e., corporate, procurement, distribution, content sharing, production etc.), particularly in adjacent and/or overlapping geographies.”

Postmedia is the former newspaper division of Canwest, and includes titles such as the National Post and theMontreal Gazette. Postmedia’s secured creditors took control of the company after Canwest filed for bankruptcy in 2010.

Torstar has previously shown interest in Postmedia—submitting a bid in April 2010 when Canwest LP put itself up for sale. The bid was backed by Fairfax Financial Holdings, which holds an investment in Torstar.

“Although we do not believe a major acquisition is a current priority for Torstar, we view Torstar as a logical buyer for Postmedia Network should priorities change and/or the right opportunity arise,” McReynolds said. “We note that with the completed sale of CTVglobemedia, Torstar is in a much stronger financial position than the company was in April 2010.”

One major stumbling block to a bid by Torstar is the valuation gap between the two companies. RBC says Torstar is currently trading at EV/EBITDA multiple of 4.1 versus Postmedia’s 6.6 valuation.

RBC initiated its coverage on Postmedia on Wednesday with an “underperform” rating and a $14 price target.

Postmedia feels impact of ‘slow and sporadic’ economic recovery, posts Q3 loss

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Source: winnipegfreepress.com

TORONTO – Postmedia Network Canada Corp. lost $3.9 million in its third quarter as the newspaper and digital publisher pulled in less print advertising revenues and had higher expenses.

The owner of the National Post newspaper and other major media properties said the loss amounted to 10 cents per share on $259 million in revenue, mainly from advertising, for the three months ended May 31.

The company said Tuesday that consumer confidence was shaky during the quarter and advertisers responded by holding back.

“I think that we’ve had a couple of quite good months and then you have one bad month. We don’t seem to have any real trend taking place,” Postmedia CEO Paul Godfrey said on a conference call, describing the situation as “choppy.”

Godfrey said national advertising was up, but retail classified ads were down, as retailers dealt with consumers worried a recession could return, and the HST in British Columbia deterred shoppers from making big-ticket purchases.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty out there which I think is creating people to sit on their hands for a while,” he said.

He said Postmedia (TSX:PNC.A), is seeing some signs of improvement in the early weeks of the fourth quarter, but revenue visibility “remains poor.”

Godfrey’s comments echo those made by rival Torstar Corp. (TSX:TS.B). The publisher of the Toronto Star also reported lower print advertising revenues during its first quarter in May, saying it is hard to predict the print advertising environment and the pace of economic recovery.

Year-earlier figures for Postmedia aren’t directly comparable because the newspapers were still part of Canwest, which was undergoing a court-supervised restructuring that saw its television assets go to Shaw Communications (TSX:SJR.B) and its newspaper division going to creditors that helped form Postmedia.

In the third quarter of its 2010 financial year, the Canwest papers recorded a profit of $40.6 million with $270 million of revenue. In the first nine months of its 2010 financial year, the company reported a $94.9-million profit and $811 million in revenues.

For the first nine months of its 2011 financial year, which ended May 31, Postmedia lost $10.6 million or 26 cents per share on $788 million in revenue.

Postmedia, which began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange last month, recorded an $11-million loss on debt prepayment, versus zero in the same quarter last year.

Godfrey said the company’s team is focused on new approaches for delivering content, and providing solutions for advertisers and marketers, repaying debt and accelerating revenue generating opportunities.

The company owns 11 English-language daily newspapers including the National Post, Vancouver Sun and Ottawa Citizen as well as the Canada.com website, online versions of its daily papers and deal-a-day website SwarmJam.com.

Local 2000 applies for certification at StarPhoenix

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Source: mediaunion.ca

This morning CEP Local 2000 applied for certification of a new bargaining unit at the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, a Postmedia-owned newspaper in Saskatchewan’s largest city.

The application covers all employees at the StarPhoenix, except those in the distribution department and some management personnel.

“This is great news for all Postmedia employees, union and non-union,” said Local 2000 Vice President Gary Engler, who has been helping out with the organizing campaign for the past month. “It shows that people are prepared to stand up for themselves despite all the industry woes. You can only push people so far before they fight back.”

The union submitted membership application cards from a significant majority of StarPhoenix employees in all departments except distribution to the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board. The proposed bargaining unit will have over 130 members.

The company will be given 10 days to respond to our application and sometime later the Board will conduct a vote. If a majority of employees vote yes to the union, the process for bargaining a first collective agreement will commence.

Local 2000 has created a website, www.cepatstarphoenix.ca, for the campaign.

“Congratulations to everyone who signed cards and helped out in the campaign,” said Engler. “We had a really good group of hard-working people who made the card-signing part of the campaign a tremendous success.

“But, it’s important to stay focused on our goal: gaining a strong voice in dealing with Postmedia or whoever is the next owner of the StarPhoenix. We have taken an important step, but it is only the first of many.”

Deadline deal averts strike at Windsor Star

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Source: cwa-scacanada.ca

Windsor Typographical Union | CWA Canada Local 30553

A tentative deal reached between three unions and the Windsor Star mere minutes ahead of a Friday midnight strike deadline scored all-around thumbs up in ratification votes yesterday. The three-year collective agreement mostly preserves an enviable early-retirement provision that new owner Postmedia Network wanted to abolish. It was that stance at the outset of talks early in the new year, along with what amounted to a proposed wage freeze, that galvanized 230 union members and led to a 96-per-cent strike vote in late March. Brian Beaumont, vice-president of the Windsor Typographical Union (WTU) and chair of its bargaining committee, says these were a “tough set of negotiations given the economic times.” Postmedia, which last year purchased newspaper assets from a virtually bankrupt Canwest, made it clear “it did not want to move forward with any wage increases.” In the end, he says, “We got the best deal possible and that’s what we told our members (on Sunday).” The WTU, with 72 workers in the mailroom; the Canadian Auto Workers, which represents staff in the newsroom, advertising and business office; and the Communications Energy and Paperworkers (pressroom) voted 100, 93 and 100 per cent respectively to ratify the contract that contains modest wage increases. David Esposti, the CWA Canada staff representative who assisted the WTU in the joint-council negotiations, says the 60 part-time hopper feeders are the big winners. While all full-time workers get a $1,000 lump sum in lieu of a first-year increase (followed by 1.0 per cent in year two and 1.5 per cent in the third year), they get a lump sum of $500 plus a one-per-cent wage increase in the first year. The other major victory for the part-timers, says Esposti, is that they retain their guaranteed minimum shift of four hours, which Postmedia wanted to trim to three, amounting to a 25-per-cent pay cut. “By the end of this three-year contract,” he says, “WTU members will be making more than $17 an hour.” Esposti says the “elephant in the room” during the four days of mediation last week was the early retirement provision, which allows employees qualified to retire at age 60 to receive half pay, full benefits and pension contributions until age 65. Under the new arrangement, which is now in effect for all future contracts until existing employees have exercised their rights, retirees will receive 45 per cent pay and full benefits for four years and pension contributions for two years. In addition, says Esposti, the employer-funded pension plan contributions increase by 25 cents in year two and a similar amount in year three, bringing the total to $15 per shift. All three unions saw gains, including a night-shift premium that goes from $14.50 to $15 in year two; vision care increases $25 to $275 every two years; and sons- and daughters-in-law are now included as immediate family for three-day bereavement leave entitlement. Esposti says there were several contract language changes that benefitted the WTU and one that retained the union’s jurisdiction but gave the employer a break on overtime rules. The last two collective agreements at the Windsor Star were achieved within minutes either side of a strike/lockout deadline. This agreement will expire at the end of 2013.

The Perils of Postmedia: News staff out, managing editor in, at Edmonton Journal

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Source: albertadiary.ca – By David J. Climenhaga

This post also appears on rabble.ca.

“The Press” … back in the day when the Edmonton Journal was a great newspaper. Below: soon-to-be Journal managing editor Stephanie Coombs, former Journal publisher Linda Hughes, Colonist founder Amor de Cosmos.

Just when it didn’t seem like another drop of blood was left to squeeze from its various Alberta stones, Don Mills, Ont.-based Postmedia Network Inc. pushed another five senior newsroom employees out the door of the Edmonton Journal on Friday.

The carnage at the Journal included two veteran copy editors, two graphic artists and a National Newspaper Award winning photographer.

Reports from Alberta’s deep south indicate a similar number of newsroom staffers were made to walk the plank at the Calgary Herald about a week earlier.

The situation at the Journal is actually worse than it appears at first glance, however, since not included in the casualties listed above are a veteran newsroom administrative support worker, gone from the building the same day after decades on the job, a talented young reporter who recently quit in disgust at the lack of support for journalistic effort, the newsroom’s Web and social media guru, who also quit, and a significant number of distribution employees.

Several other respected Journal reporters, editors and executives had already departed either during a round of layoffs and packages last fall or soon thereafter. Together, insiders claim these departures leave the paper with only about a dozen city-side reporters to cover the news in a city of close to a million people.

Possibly related to this, an announcement is expected tomorrow of a newsroom managerial reshuffling that is said to include the addition as managing editor of Stephanie Coombs, late of the Ottawa Citizen and more recently city editor of the self-evidently unhyphenated Victoria Times Colonist.

Ms. Coombs’ coruscating trajectory follows the path across the cosmos described by the Journal’s recently appointed editor in chief Lucinda Chodan, who is also a veteran of the once-great Victoria newspaper founded by Amor de Cosmos in 1858. That paper was known in those pre-media non-network days as the Daily British Colonist. For his sins, Mr. de Cosmos was briefly premier of British Columbia.

Probably more important to the decision-makers at Postmedia, however, was Ms. Chodan’s history at the Edmonton Sun, which some time ago went down the same dreary path now being trod by the Journal’s weary and diminished editorial staff.

Interestingly, some Journal insiders assert the latest bloodletting will leave the city room with a staff-to-management ratio of about two to one – that is, half a dozen or so senior editors to supervise about a dozen front-line newsroom workers.

At the risk of flogging a dead horse, anyone who has served any time in the newspaper business understands that this kind of staff cutting usually improves the bottom line in the short term at the expense of the quality of the journalistic product over time. The effect of this phenomenon is one of the key reasons for the decline of the Canadian newspaper industry, which the newspaper executives who made these foolish decisions inevitably blame on the Internet.

The desire for short-term gains regardless of cost at the metaphorically named Postmedia may be related to the corporation’s parlous financial state, described last month in the company’s own Financial Post publication as the effect of a combination of non-recurring charges related to cost-cutting and “declines in print advertising.” However, a series of acquisitions and other business decisions made over several years by owners including Southam Inc., Hollinger Inc. and Canwest all contributed to this doleful state of affairs.

Certainly, Postmedia President and CEO Paul Godfrey was quoted as saying in the same FP story that “debt repayment and cost management will continue to be priorities in the ongoing transformation in our business.” And so it would seem!

Postmedia may be extremely anxious to cut costs to make its stock more attractive, since it is “imperative” for the company to sell shares “if it wishes to remain a Canadian newspaper publisher under tax laws,” the FP story explained. “Under the law, advertisers are permitted to write down ad expenses spent on advertising with Canadian newspapers.”

Alas for Postmedia, its current owners are made up “primarily of U.S. hedge funds and banks that are former creditors of Canwest Global Communications Corp. The group bought the assets after the media conglomerate filed for creditor protection and was forced to sell.”

This all has remaining Journal employees on their knees nightly praying to whatever deity they worship that someone will buy the Journal and somehow return it to its salad days, when it had the reputation as the best newspaper between Vancouver and Toronto – or at least between Kamloops and Medicine Hat.

Lending credence to their fevered hopes is the fact that Linda Hughes, the Journal’s respected former editor and publisher who retired in 2006, was last year appointed to the board of Torstar Corp., publishers of the Toronto Star. As readers of this blog know well, the Star is the last great newspaper still publishing in Canada.

At least once before in recent years, Torstar looked at the Journal as a potential addition to its stable of newspapers.

Will Ms. Hughes and the Torstar Boys ride to the rescue of the beleaguered Journal? Tune in next time for another exciting episode of the Perils of Postmedia!

$2.5-million pay-equity plan approved for Gazette workers

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Source: cwa-scacanada.ca

Montreal Newspaper Guild | CWA Canada Local 30111

A pay-equity plan that has finally been approved at The Gazette will see about $2.5 million in back pay and penalties doled out to workers.

David Wilson, the CWA Canada staff representative who has been involved with the pay-equity file in Montreal since the beginning in January 2000, says workers who were “grossly underpaid” will now be properly compensated, some as much as $50,000.

Clerical jobs were the source of some of the greatest discrepancies, says Wilson. Pay increases range from one to 20 per cent and are retroactive to Nov. 21, 2001, the original deadline for The Gazette to comply with provincial legislation. The payouts include a five-per-cent penalty the company was assessed each year past the deadline.

The province’s Pay Equity Commission has just given its stamp of approval to the plan, which was thrashed out over more than 10 years.

The employer-employee committee now has to begin a maintenance process, which must be completed by the end of this year. Wilson says this is necessary because new technologies and ways of doing things constantly alter the nature of jobs. After 2011, companies will have to do maintenance to the plan at least every five years.

He says CWA Canada Locals, particularly in Ontario which has pay-equity laws, need to keep up to date on changes in the workplace. “All those Locals should be doing maintenance because there’s money sitting there for their members.”

Wilson, who has the most pay equity expertise of any staff in the union, encouraged Locals to contact him if they would like some guidance on the matter.

Literally hundreds of hours were spent on pay equity in Montreal, he says. At the outset, the committee evaluated 73 jobs and had to construct a rating system that would pass muster with the commission.

Those sessions bogged down in 2003 when The Gazette “threw up roadblocks” with complaints to the commission and appeals to the courts, says Wilson.

Many companies put the process on hold in 2006, when it was thought the legislation would be revisited. “A lot of employers were hoping the legislation would be vastly changed or eliminated,” says Wilson. It wasn’t.

The committee at The Gazette restarted the process last August and concluded two weeks ago, says Wilson. The rating system they had devised was considered deficient by the commission, which then sent an employee to work with the committee to modify the plan to its satisfaction.

It could take some time to track down everyone who’s entitled to receive a payout, says Wilson. He cites the example of the Reader Sales & Service phone room (it closed in 2008) where many workers came and went over seven years.

The raises aren’t going solely to women. Wilson says some males who work in female-dominated departments such as the business office, will be getting an increase.