Toronto Star Fortunes

[scribblet]

I've been hearing a bit lately about the Toronto Star and its fortunes, or lack there of, is there any chance that our 'favourite red rag' could be having problems.

Also like the part about the Liberal Party fortunes being directly related to the machinations at the Toronto Star - say it isn't so.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/is...cd-ff427995cb2c

Warren Kinsella, National Post

Published: Wednesday, October 18, 2006

My favourite Toronto Star story doesn't actually involve anyone from the Toronto Star itself. But it's a useful cautionary tale, just the same.

Back when I was a lot younger, I lived in Ottawa. Every once in a while, I would have lunch with Senator Keith Davey, the Liberal Party's fabled rainmaker. While he picked at a Cobb salad, and while I said not much of anything, the genial Senator would spin war stories about some of the big electoral victories he had delivered to Pierre Trudeau. It was fun to just sit there, and listen to him.

In the view of Senator Davey, the Liberal Party of Canada's fortunes were directly related to the machinations at the Toronto Star. Without the Star, he suggested, the Liberals didn't win elections.

"The Toronto Star is it," said the Rainmaker. "We need that newspaper."

I thought of that, this week, as news spread about the simultaneous "resignations" of the Star's publisher, Michael Goldbloom, and its editor-in-chief, Giles Gherson. To some in Central Canada, it was a sensation: political and media folks started to blizzard each other with emails and hushed phone calls. "Can you believe it?" said one.

Well, yes, actually, we can. The fact is this: Contrary to Senator Davey's view, no one really "needs" the Toronto Star anymore. They haven't for some time.

Reporters and editors would prefer that honours such as the National Newspaper Awards determine which papers succeed. They would understandably like editorial content to matter most. But, as with any other business, the bottom line ultimately determines who lives to see another day, and who does not.

For quite some time, the bottom line at the Toronto Star has been awful. A recent report prepared by media analysts at BMO Nesbitt Burns tells the real story, and it is not a happy one.

"Revenues [and earnings] all came in below expectations," when second-quarter 2006 results were analyzed," declared the report. "Once again, the underperformance was attributable to disappointing newspaper results ... the near-term outlook remains uninspiring."

The outlook for the various newspapers owned by the Toronto Star, and the Star itself, "remains unclear. [A plan] for near-term capital gains is elusive."