>Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 16:31:50 -0800 >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: Accelerating Media Concentration >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Mime-Version: 1.0 >Precedence: Bulk >Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Status: > >Accelerating Media Concentration > >Last Friday, the Toronto Globe and Mail changed hands. The new owner >is�the telephone company, in its new guise as Bell Globemedia. >Employees reporting for work at the Globe on Friday were told by >internal email that their supplementary insurance carrier was being >changed - its important to get critical things out of the way first. >And, in order to forestall alarm at the appearance of uncultured >television folk in the foyer, notice was given that the Globe building >would be housing some CTV production people henceforth. Thus, the Lord >Ken era at the Globe ended, not with a bang but with an insurance >carrier change and a beachhead for telejournalists. > >On Monday of this week, the CBC announced the end of The Journal. The >in-depth news magazine component of the 10 PM news package, once the >preserve of Barbara Frum, is to be cancelled in favour of a longer >current news component. > >In these ways, the number of sources of news and commentary in this >country continues to dwindle. And since the large media voices >themselves have nothing to gain from presenting analyses of their own >decline, it seems unlikely most Canadians will even notice these >changes. > >The question arises as to who owns and controls what in the Canadian >media firmament. Below are revenue figures from the National Post's >'Canada's 500 Largest Corporations', June 2000, on the principal >players. > >Multimedia Companies in Canada and 1999 Year-End Operating Revenues, >by Rank > >Quebecor Inc (Pierre Karl Péladeau) $ 10.83 billion >The Thomson Corp. (Ken Thomson) $ 8.54 billion >Hollinger Inc. (Conrad Black) $ 3.24 billion >Rogers Communications Inc.(Ted Rogers) $ 3.11 billion >Le Groupe Vidéotron Ltée $ 936 million >Shaw Communications Inc. $ 728 million >Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc $ 633 million >Canwest Global Communications Corp. $ 602 million >CTV Inc. $ 528 million >Canadian Broadcasting Corp. $ 484 million > >Since the time when the table was calculated, CTV and a major part of >the Globe and Mail element of Thomson Corp. have been acquired by BCE >Inc. (formerly referred to as the telephone company). Its 1999 revenue >figure was $14 billion and change. In the fall of 2000, Rogers >Communications also bought the Toronto Blue Jays. The net effect of >these acquisitions and liquidations is that control of news >organizations has passed into the hands of conglomerate corporations >which are firmly attuned to the quarterly earnings expectations of >financial capital markets and not to any sense of obligation to the >consumers of the information they provide. While this transition may >lessen the influence of previous owners whose intentions were far more >directed towards influencing the tone of editorial policies their >organs pursued, there does not seem to have been much public gain from >the concentration process. Editorial independence, the dissemination >of critical thought and the giving of offence to their large >advertisers are not, in general, part of a corporate earnings >maximization strategy. > >For all the official hand wringing over the years (the Davey >Committee, The Royal Commission on Newspapers, etc.), the media >business in Canada is even more concentrated now than it was in the >past. Concentration now extends down to the community newspaper level >and includes television networks, commercial printing operations, >professional sports teams, entertainment programming production, and >of course radio and television licensed broadcast operators. > >Important decisions concerning the communications infrastructure for >Canada's tomorrows are now being made. Bandwidth is being awarded to >carriers, wireless Internet is being installed, the balance between >local service access and long distance tolls is being adjusted, and >the terms of the emerging accommodation between privacy and police >powers in a data-based society are being set. The decisions made today >will form the context for social life in the future: what people do to >earn incomes, how they form family support networks when members are >dispersed geographically and few in number, where they will live, and >how they will participate-- if at all-- in the political life of the >country. It is unlikely that these decisions will receive the public >scrutiny they deserve if the successful franchise winners also own >most of the major media outlets in the country. > >There is no reason to think, as the 19th century liberal position >would suggest, that economic competition between enlarged numbers of >multimedia corporations would help us with this problem. Its hard to >see how a media corporation, struggling with enhanced competition, >would be more and not less likely to be willing to offend large >advertisers by publishing critical commentary. In the United States, >critical commentary tends appear in publications supported directly or >indirectly by private endowments, in The Atlantic Monthly or Harper's >for instance. There seems little prospect Canadian philanthropy will >take this form in the future; it certainly has not done so in the >past. > >If Canadians are to have any alternative sources of information and >commentary at all in the future, they will have to devise them >themselves completely outside the media structures outlined above. As >a practical matter, the only way of doing this is to use the Internet >as the delivery medium. It avoids the expense of paper, no money >changes hands, no bonds of fealty are created with bankers, it does >not require a license, and there are no technical means of censorship. > >Craig McKie >
