CanWest Global's newspaper purchase – will it bring more choices or one voice? by Jennifer Ditchburn

What do you get when you cross a TV powerhouse with a newspaper empire? It's hard to say. Canadians could have more options for how they get their news and entertainment as TV and papers expand on the Internet.

Or consumers could see the number of voices in the media shrink, as news is recycled over and over again.

Many observers in the journalism community said Monday that the transfer of the bulk of Conrad Black's newspaper assets to CanWest Global Communications could spell problems for the quality of news.

In some key areas, such as Vancouver, four media outlets would be owned by the same company.

"It's quite possible that the same journalist who will be writing the news for newspapers will be co-opted or conscripted to provide the news also for television," said Enn Raudsepp, head of the journalism department at Concordia University in Montreal.

"The public is not well serviced if instead of getting two different accounts of some event, they are reading and watching the same person providing that information."

Some analysts also point to CanWest Global's reputation as one of the stingiest creators of Canadian content.

The Winnipeg broadcaster, which carries some of the hottest U.S. sitcoms on its Global TV network, consistently comes last when regulators compare how committed broadcasters are to home-grown productions.

"If that same behaviour around trying to squeeze out spending on content in order to add profitability were to happen to a huge number of Canadian newspapers, it would dumb them down," said Ian Morrison, spokesman for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.

"Maybe they'll have to change their ways and to spend more responsibly on content because they're becoming such a powerful media organization."

CanWest Global acknowledges there will be crossover between its holdings when it comes to news content, but ultimately there will be more content of higher quality. Moreover, Canadian broadcasters must bulk up to compete in a rapidly changing media world dominated by instantaneous access through the Internet.

"The borders are gone; it's a new world," CanWest's executive chairman Izzy Asper said Monday in explaining the deal in international terms. "The fact is we are tiny, compared with where we have to be."

There is a significant school of thought in the media sector that news organizations can't survive unless they stay competitive and embrace the Internet.

Newspaper circulation is stagnant, while more and more Canadians log on to the Web for their news fix.

"If the marriage provides a firmer economic foundation and continued employment for the journalist, then you have to say it's a good development," said Peter Desbarats, former dean of the University of Western Ontario's School of Journalism.

Peter Forth, head of DNA Media Inc., said CanWest and Hollinger have been among the slowest media players in the Internet world and really needed to act fast.

Last spring, Forth sat on the same panel as CanWest chief executive Leonard Asper at a TV and film seminar.

Forth chastized Asper and others for not focusing on how they could work with publishers and the Internet - called convergence in media-lingo.

He doesn't expect Canadians will see CanWest suddenly create a massive new Internet presence. But with the right resources, he said, it could eventually provide consumers with useful tools that straddle every kind of media.

"This is a good sign that Canadian media companies are taking convergence seriously," said Forth, who helps publishers and technology companies get on the Net.

"It underscores the importance of printing and broadcasting in the Internet world."

Still, there's concern about how much concentration of media ownership should be allowed.

Robert McChesney, author of the 1999 book Rich Media, Poor Democracy, said commercial pressures over the past 15 years have created a free-fall in the quality and freedom of the press.

"In a liberal democracy, to have this sort of concentration over news and journalism and information ... is simply a contradiction, a conflict," McChesney said from his Wisconsin home.

"Something has to give. You're either not going to have much of a democracy or you're not going to have this type of press ownership. You can't have both."

© Canadian Press