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Canwest bidder David Black has record of buying, then slashing

Wondering what might happen at Canwest’s bigger newspapers if B.C.-based media tycoon David Black were to succeed in his bid to buy the chain? Consider the case of the Beacon-Journal, Akron, Ohio’s major daily, purchased by Black in 2006.

Last week what’s left of newsroom staff backed down on their threat to strike, settling for a three-year contract that cuts wages 10 per cent and freezes pensions. This after three rounds of layoffs thinned the Beacon-Journal’s staff by one third.

It’s not as if innovation replaced fat, apparently. Black’s “Beacon-Journal has not distinguished itself in pushing its newsroom to embrace web-first, web-only, blog-friendly reporting. The online sales side is a work in progress,” according to newspaper business analyst Ken Doctor, writing for PaidContent.org.

Demoralized staff decided not to walk out for fear that harsher terms would be imposed by management, Bob DeMay, the Beacon-Journal assistant photo editor who heads the local Newspaper Guild chapter, told Editor &Publisher. “We felt this was the best deal we could get for our members. That doesn't mean we like it.”

If Black succeeds in acquiring the Canwest chain, he’ll take control of large dailies including the Vancouver Sun, Vancouver Province, Victoria Times-Colonist, Ottawa Citizen, Calgary Herald, Montreal Gazette and National Post.

That might seem a big step up for Black, given that he built his news empire mainly from thinly staffed small town weeklies in Western Canada.

But Black’s “likely” partner in the Canwest bid, according to a Globe and Mail report, is Beverly Hills-based Platinum Equity,, which last year snapped up one of California’s major dailies, the San Diego Union-Tribune, ending an 81-year media dynasty in that city of 1.3 million. Whom did Platinum bring in to advise? David Black. Shortly after the deal was inked, mass layoffs ensued, slashing 30 per cent of staff.

Black also has owned the Honolulu Star-Bulletin since 2000, and last month bought the competing daily, the Honolulu Advertiser. Black now is selling the Star-Bulletin and says if a buyer isn’t found, he’ll merge the two papers. On Friday 600 people at the Advertiser got pink slips.

Before Black let it be known he was going to peddle the Star-Bulletin, he granted his paper an interview and declared himself to have “great confidence” about the newspaper business “going forward.” The article predicted Black and his local co-investors would emerge “with the only daily newspaper in Honolulu.”

Meanwhile, back in Akron, a former political columnist for the Beacon-Journal now blogs as “Grumpy Abe.” Abe Zaidan is particularly grumpy about David Black, to whom he addressed an “open letter” last year. A taste:

“…popular sports and general columnists have vanished through the front door, unwilling to commit their future to a paper that you have been decimating since you entered the scene as a reclusive publisher . . . . At what point because of the shrinkage do we stop referring to your paper as a newspaper? What is your obligation to treat not only the paper but the city with professional concern so that you would still merit with pride your name on the paper?

“Many people in this town would like to know. Unless you can explain how the loss of your best reporters and editors can improve the ailing look of the Beacon Journal these days, you will only make matters worse for yourself with the paper's readers.

“Perhaps you might consider a visit to Akron someday to offer some answers to these questions. Otherwise, why should anyone care about the bottom line for a newspaper that has already lost its soul?”

David Beers is editor of The Tyee.

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