TORONTO — Canwest Global Communications has put its entire newspaper division under creditor protection and is expected to formally begin a sale process within a week under an agreement with its key creditors.

The Winnipeg-based television and publishing company also said it has arranged up to $25 million in financing from its senior lenders, who have been working closely with Canwest management as it restructures the business.

"We have almost half of the secured lenders that are not only supporting a consensual financial restructuring, but that same group of lenders is also prepared to put an offering in to purchase the full integrated publishing group, and it becomes the floor price for a public process that will actually start next week," Canwest spokesman John Douglas said in an interview.

Canwest's Global Television operation was put under court protection several months ago, as was its National Post newspaper. Canwest later got permission to move the National Post, a separate legal entity, to the larger newspaper division - amid a widespread expectation that all the publications would be sold.

However, until Friday, Canwest's main newspaper division, and some other parts of its business, have been operating outside of creditor protection while Canwest and its major creditors worked on a deal to cope with billions of dollars of debt.

Canwest says putting the newspaper business under court protection is in the best interests of the company and the 5,300 employees at its publishing operations and will address the division's existing debts and protect its brands.

Besides the Post, Canwest owns major dailies such as the Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Victoria Times-Colonist and two Vancouver dailies, the Sun and Province.

Canwest's latest filing in an Ontario bankruptcy court also includes various community newspapers and a batch of Internet news websites such as Canada.com.

As with other media companies, Canwest has been affected by the recession's impact on sales of newspaper and television advertising, its main source of revenue.

In addition, Canwest has been nearly buried under a mountain of debt amassed over the past decade as it expanded beyond the original Global Television business by purchasing much of Hollinger Inc.'s Canadian newspaper business.

David Friend reports for The Canadian Press.