Quebecor snaps up Osprey chain

Quebecor Inc. will acquire Osprey Media Income Fund, a newspaper chain with several of Canada's oldest titles, in a $517-million deal.

Based in Markham, Ont., the company operates 54 newspapers, including the St. Catharines Standard, Peterborough Examiner and the Kingston Whig-Standard.
Quebecor owns papers across Canada, including Le Journal in Montreal and Quebec, and the Sun tabloid chain in Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg. It also owns the 24 Hours chain of freebies in several cities.

"We believe that the addition of the assets of Osprey to our existing portfolio in the print media sector will make our organization better equipped to meet the challenges facing our industry. With the combination of Sun Media and Osprey, Quebecor Media consolidates its role as a leader in the industry", said Pierre Karl Peladeau, president and CEO of Quebecor Media.

"The offer of Quebecor Media reflects strong value for unitholders while providing an excellent strategic fit for our newspapers," said Osprey CEO Michael Sifton, great-grandson of Sir Clifford Sifton, a federal cabinet minister who bought the Winnipeg Free Press in the 1890s.

Lock-out, strike and Média Matin Québec

UPDATE (May 10, 2007)

MédiaMatin will continue to publish as another court injunction was denied today

On April 24, 2007 a new free daily newspaper paper called MédiaMatin Québec was launched by 120 editorial and office employees who were locked out at Quebecor's Le Journal de Québec. Eighty press workers then followed in a supportive strike.

• Free 24-page tabloid

• Considering doubling the press run from 40,000 to 80,000 and soliciting advertising to make the paper self-sufficient.

• Competes with Le Journal de Québec - which Quebecor has continued to produce in Toronto - and with Quebec City's other daily, Le Soleil.

Du déjà vu
Grant Robertson, media reporter for the Globe and Mail notes with irony how the Journal de Québec and the Journal de Montreal were themselves successfully launched 40 years ago during newspaper strikes at Montreal's La Presse and Quebec City's Le Soleil.

MédiaMatin intends to publish as long as the lock-out persists while a Quebecor spokesman says Quebecor is trying to find a way to halt publication of MédiaMatin.

Legal battle
Quebecor spokesman Luc Lavoie charged the union was just waiting for the lockout to spring its rival paper and Quebecor is looking for legal ways to shut it down. The Quebec Superior Court rejected the Quebecor/Sun Media request for a provisional injunction to stop the publication of MédiaMatin.

But both sides were anticipating the lock-out. Le Journal de Québec created a backup newsroom at the Toronto Sun, which also belongs to Quebecor, and shifted its classified advertising operation to Kanata in Ottawa.

Le Journal made in Toronto
So the largest French-language daily in Quebec's capital city... is being produced in Toronto on the third floor of the Toronto Sun. (No Toronto Sun union members are doing work on Le Journal de Québec)

MédiaMatin Québec
735, av. Pruneau
Local 150
Québec
(418) 688-5550


More info here and here and here