Crocodile tears?
In the
midst of an economic downturn, Canadian media companies like Canwest Global are
announcing dire cutbacks. Is Canwest really in trouble, or are they just
seizing the moment to cut 560 jobs
and demand further
deregulation? Looking at the newspaper division’s healthy profits, Deborah Jones is
skeptical. While company stocks are down, company profits seem steady. Laura
Rich Fines, Wall Street’s top media-stock analyst, has some advice for
newspapers in these times: make less money,
get off the stock exchange. So simple, yet so unlikely.
(Graphic by B. Kimmel)
In the
midst of an economic downturn, Canadian media companies like Canwest Global are
announcing dire cutbacks. Is Canwest really in trouble, or are they just
seizing the moment to cut 560 jobs
and demand further
deregulation? Looking at the newspaper division’s healthy profits, Deborah Jones is
skeptical. While company stocks are down, company profits seem steady. Laura
Rich Fines, Wall Street’s top media-stock analyst, has some advice for
newspapers in these times: make less money,
get off the stock exchange. So simple, yet so unlikely.
(Graphic by B. Kimmel)
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Patricia W. Elliott is a magazine journalist and assistant professor at the School of Journalism, University of Regina. You can visit her at patriciaelliott.ca.
November 17, 2008
“Make less money, get off the
“Make less money, get off the stock exchange” seems like good advice for Canadian magazines, too. Once-independent mags purchased by Rogers, Transcontinental, St. Joseph and other large companies now have much higher overheads — they’re helping to pay for modern offices and lots of support and admin staff, including highly paid professionals like in-house lawyers. On top of that, Rogers and Transcontinental have shareholders to please. But publishing a magazine in Canada is still a low-margin proposition. Publishers need to adjust their expectations for returns, so they can increase editorial compensation for staff and contributors to levels competitive with jobs of similar skill and responsibility in other industries. That’s Business 101.