Postmedia and Toronto Star owner Nordstar drop merger talks

Two of Canada’s largest news publishers, Postmedia Network Canada Corp. and Nordstar Capital LP, called off talks over a potential merger agreement less than two weeks after announcing talks on the subject.

Postmedia, which owns newspapers such as the National Post, Calgary Herald and Vancouver Sun, initially announced on June 27 that it had entered into a series of non-binding discussions to consider a “potential merger transaction” involving both itself and Nordstar, which owns Metroland Media Group and the Toronto Star, would come under joint ownership.

Under the proposed settlement, Postmedia shareholders would have a 56 percent economic interest in the company and Nordstar shareholders would have the remaining 44 percent.

Nordstar would still own a 65 percent stake in Toronto Star Inc.

Postal media, however said on July 10 that talks came to an end after the two companies “could not reach an agreement on the terms of the merger”.

Speaking of the fruitless merger talks in the press release, Postmedia CEO and President Andrew MacLeod said there is still a “need for creative solutions and fundamental transformation” in the Canadian media and news industry.

“Our ongoing focus is on protecting and ensuring Canadians’ access to reliable information,” MacLeod said. “By leveling the playing field with the tech giants and creating a healthy ecosystem, we can ensure that the media industry and journalism remain vibrant, diverse and resilient in Canada.”

Postmedia and Nordstar previously said their merger talks were an attempt to respond to what they called an “existential threat” currently facing the media industry.

Toronto Star publisher Jordan Bitove said on June 27 that the “viability of Canada’s newspaper industry is at extreme risk,” adding that Nordstar and Postmedia newspapers and media outlets could provide more “access to reliable journalism and quality reporting.” by their sources.

Account C-18

Merger talks between the two major media companies began shortly after parliament passed the online news bill into law, with both Google and Meta announcing they would block all Canadian news on their platforms in order to comply with the law once the new legislation comes into effect. effect.

Formerly known as Bill C-18, the new law will take effect in December and will require the tech giants to pay Canadian media outlets for all their content linked or shared on their platforms.

Instead of making deals with outlets and publishers, Google and Meta, which own Facebook and Instagram, said they will block Canadian news on their platforms instead.

Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez has maintained that Ottawa is confident it can strike a deal with Google in December to ensure the tech giant doesn’t remove any Canadian news from its platform.

However, he has said the federal government is less confident in its ability to reach an agreement with Meta, which he says is why Ottawa decided last week to suspend all of its advertising on both Facebook and Instagram.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.