urban daily newspaper first mass medium in canada provided current local commercial and official...
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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
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?