Urban daily newspaper first mass medium in Canada

Provided current local commercial and official information

Halifax Gazette (1752) - British Colony of Nova Scotia

Then American printers brought presses into Quebec - Quebec Gazette (1764)

Dependent on government support and patronage

Not critical of authority

Daily Newspaper…

After 1815 with controvery re British rule, debate appeared

By Confederation every paper allied with Conservative or Reform (Liberal) cause - and news stories reflected this stance...

Telegraph

Beginning of railway age 1850 all major eastern cities linked to each

other & to major American centres Newspapers one of the largest customers

of telegraph companies Political and business information

increased

Telegraph etc.

1866 undersea cable in North Atlantic enabled access to European news

All of this made printing daily commercial editions feasible

Modernization

Industrialization at turn of century in most major Canadian cities

increased demand for workers - immigration urban population increased new skilled and semi-skilled jobs-Taylorism educational imperative - public schools development of leisure....creation of 'mass

media'

Newspaper Modernization

New Journalism or 'People's Press' Copied U.S. publishers such as William

Randolph Hearst Creation of independent popular dailies - no

affiliation towards a particular political party -Acted as 'watchdog' against government

corruption Supported reformist causes for working man

Newspaper Modernization cont’d

Often evening editions Local news became important Emphasis on human interest stories and

entertainment Some syndicated material from U.S.

dailies

Press Becomes Big Business

Newspaper circulations rose Railways and other corporate interests invested

in newspapers Publishers became important business people Advertising an integral component of

newspapers Technological developments for newspaper

production demanded lots of capital

Newspaper Chain Ownership

Chains own the majority of dailies in North America

Chain ownership is also coming to dominate the free weeklies (i.e., the Montreal Mirror)

Such ownership trends are also referred to as conglomerization

Davey Commission (1970)

noted trend towards ownership of newspapers by few firms: Southam, Thomson and Financial Post

Recommended creation of press ownership review board to monitor ownership and mergers & acquisitions...to control the concentration of ownership in the newspaper industry

Board was never created

Kent Commission (1981)

looked at newspaper ownership in Canada Came about when Ottawa Journal

(Thomson) and Winnipeg Tribune (Southam) quit publishing

What should government do about this trend for ownership in fewer & fewer hands?

Kent…

Made many recommendations including: no owner could control more than 5% of Canada's total newspaper circulation; no owner could own more than 5 newspapers; and no owner could own more than 1 newspaper w/in radius of 500 km.; several chains would be required to divest themselves of their ownings, i.e., Thomson.

However, recommendations never came to be: "vapor-ware"

Current Players in Canadian Newspapers include…

Torstar Southam Canwest Global Hollinger Thomson Quebecor/Sun Media

Canwest Global Communications

National Post (started 1998, one of two daily national newspapers) bought from Hollinger in 2001

Southam Publications: owns 14 English-language major metropolitan daily newspapers

120 daily and weekly newspapers and shoppers in smaller communities across Canada

Hollinger

international publisher (379!) and Canadian small-town owner....

1996 bought 41% of Southam; started National Post in 1998 and sold to CanWest Global

Thomson

In 2001 The Globe and Mail becomes part of Bell Globemedia, a Canadian multimedia company in which the Thomson Corporation holds a 20% ownership position

Develops lots of e-learning and other publishing ventures

Torstar Electronic Publishing

Toronto Star newspaper Other local newspapers Harlequin Enterprises toronto.com

Quebecor/Sun Media

8 metro major dailies (Sun Media) 7 local dailies in small communities acquired Groupe Videotron in 2000 TQS publishing music: Groupe Archembault retail video: Le SuperClub Vidéotron

Canadian Magazines

competition from imported magazines (read: American)

the industry is characterized by conflict between desire for independence & need for protection

1920's: no govt. protection for magazine industry 1930's: protection-tariff on U.S. magazines 1931-35:Canadian mag circulation +64%.....U.S.

mag circ. in Canada -62%

Canadian magazines… WWII: Time and Reader's Digest set up shop in

Canada 1960's: Royal Commission on Publications--

(O'Leary Commission) recommendations would have had effect of

doubling cost of advertising in foreign pubs...or diverting it, as O'Leary hoped, to Canadian magazines

1965: Legislation on O'Leary...

Magazines…

Bill 6-58: Trudeau Govt--completed O'Leary recommendations

--led to many Canadian magazines... --after 1975: 17-56% increase in city &

entertainment magazines --30-60% increase in subscriptions --12 years after C58, Maclean Hunter

revenues $5M--$50M

Split-Run Magazine Debates

Culture and trade debates Sports Illustrated case

Online Journalism

How are websites used by news organizations themselves?

How are websites used by diverse audiences? How are websites used by advertisers? Are print media merely reproducing their

standard content in electronic form? Or, are they taking advantage of the audiovisual capacity of the Internet to use sound and moving images on their Web sites?

Online Journalism….

How can (or should?) radio and TV news operations distinguish their websites from their broadcasting components?

How can advertisers use websites as a new media to promote their products and services?

Early Forms

Teletext and videotext Failed… Technologically inept $$$ No great content

Advantages….web news

Interactivity Immediacy in-depth coverage on issues.

Issues re online news…

Ads – make money? Access issues Creation of innovative ways of generating

revenue The Daily Me….