Bigger isn’t always better

Merger.

For a six-letter word, it is a heavy one. It’s a word that, more often than not, leads to more harm than good for the two entities that are combining.

Last Tuesday, it was announced by Postmedia, the owners of several weekly newspapers and dailies such as the Toronto Sun and National Post, that they are in talks to merge with Nordstar Capital LP, publishers of the Toronto Star and Metroland Media newspapers.

As someone who has been in this industry for nearly a decade, much of which was with one of the two organizations in question, my initial thought of this news was disbelief.

In my mind, there is no way these two organizations – rivals in many markets – would want to join forces.

But it is such a crazy idea that it seems plausible, given the two entities in question.

Postmedia has been bleeding money for years. To make a long story short, they would put a bandage on its revenue problem, only for the bleeding to seep through the bandage and no longer work.

Metroland and the Toronto Star have had their fair share of revenue issues as well, but were smarter in their glory days and stashed away a bunch of cash for a rainy day.

What both of these companies have failed to do in the past decade is connect with their communities.

It’s one thing in a large, urban centre like Toronto or Ottawa to run national stories. These are hubs of our country – the provincial and national capitals – and deal with high level, big issues daily.

However, readers in midwestern Ontario do not want to read about the latest at Queen’s Park inside the pages of their local papers.

They want local news.

What Postmedia and Nordstar (through its previous Torstar leadership) have done is effectively kill local newspaper journalism in their markets. In an effort to preserve the bottom line, they cut jobs in editorial departments across the country.

Why? Because, as I was once told as a young journalist, “Editorial doesn’t make us money. Advertising and fliers do.”

In one way, that individual was correct in their assessment. Advertising dollars and flier distribution does bring in needed revenue for the company. However, how do those advertisements reach residents? On the pages of a newspaper. How do fliers get delivered to homes? Inside the newspaper.

And what does a newspaper need in order for people to pick it up and read it? Engaging, local content.

And how does a newspaper create that engaging local content when it has no local editorial staff?

It doesn’t.

Hearing all of the cries from these large media outlets – Postmedia, Nordstar, etc. – saying that revenues are on the decline because people aren’t reading their product anymore shouldn’t be a surprise to any of them.

But it is.

For much of the past decade, they have ignored the needs of their readership. And now they are paying the consequences.

If this merger were to move forward, it is going to result in the next step in the decimation of the Canadian news industry.

In the name of profits and synergies, journalists will be laid off, especially in those markets were both Postmedia and Nordstar have operations.

As Brad Clark, a journalism professor at Calgary’s Mount Royal University, said in a June 28 Canadian Press story, “I’m deeply concerned that we’ll see newsrooms combined, we’ll see fewer people in legislative assemblies and House of Commons covering the important news of the day. I think this is quite a blow.”

Local journalism can thrive. But it has to be just that – local.

Perhaps the best thing that could happen to the Canadian newspaper industry, as much as it pains me to say it, is for these two companies to combine and ultimately die. Once that happens, a local publisher or group of journalists can get together and right the wrongs created by the large corporations over the past decade by starting their own publications.

As Midwestern Newspapers and countless other independently-owned newspapers in midwestern Ontario have proven, local ownership with local reporters covering local stories, supported by advertising from local businesses sold by local salespeople, is still very much wanted and appreciated by residents.

Bigger isn’t always better.

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Mike Wilson is the editor of the Midwestern Newspapers. Comments and feedback are welcome at mwilson@midwesternnewspapers.com.

Editor