Torstar
| Torstar Corporation | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Corporation |
| ISIN | CA8914742074 |
| founding | 1958 |
| Seat | Toronto , Ontario , Canada |
| management | David Holland (President and CEO ) |
| Branch | media |
| Website | www.torstar.com |
Torstar Corporation is a Canadian media and publishing company. It mainly publishes daily and local newspapers, including the flagship Toronto Star , which gives the company its name.
history
Torstar was founded in 1958 after the Ontario government passed a law that no longer complied with the provisions of the last Toronto Star owner, Joseph E. Atkinson , which he contained in his will. Atkinson had left the paper to a nonprofit that he founded while he was still alive. George Drew 's provincial government, led by the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario , passed a law prohibiting charitable organizations from running profitable businesses like newspapers. Instead of selling the newspaper, the Atkinson Foundation trustees bought the newspaper privately and set up Torstar as a private commercial enterprise. On November 26, 2010, it was announced that The Canadian Press news agency would be acquired by a for-profit corporation in which Torstar was one of the investors. In December 2011 Torstar acquired a minority stake of 25 percent in the specialty television operator Blue Ant Media.
Business activities
Torstar's media business is divided into three parts: Star Media Group , Metroland Media Group , and Digital Ventures (VerticalScope)
Star Media Group
The Star Media Group includes the “Toronto Star” and its associated units, Torstar Syndication Services and the commuter newspaper Metro in the cities of Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Halifax. The division also owns shares in the Canadian edition of the Chinese language newspaper Sing Tao Daily .
Metroland Media Group
The "Metroland Media Group" owns two daily newspapers: The Hamilton Spectator and the Waterloo Region Record and more than 100 local newspapers and other locally oriented offers.
VerticalScope
On July 29, 2015, Torstar announced it had acquired a 56 percent majority stake in VerticalScope, a Toronto-based online community operator, for $ 200 million. The company operates websites and internet forums that focus on product niches, some of which are part of the automotive industry. Torstar CEO David Holland stated that the purchase would serve to strengthen the company's presence in the digital marketplace.
Other investments
Torstar owns a 20 percent stake in Victoria- based newspaper publisher Black Press .
Investing in the past
Torstar began publishing a tabloid weekly magazine called "Scoop" in 2005, which was discontinued a year later. Although the newspaper was accused of having missed the Internet revolution in the early 1990s, "Torstar" was one of the first investors in the then still young Internet technology by acquiring shares in JCI Technologies, which with "Jobmatch", "Automatch" and "Realtymatch" offered a multiple listing service . In 1995, JCI was selected as one of the first companies to deliver content for Microsoft's “MSN network”, which went online in the mid-1990s. By early 1996, JCI may have had a dominant position in Canada's online advertising market, which Southam had a stake in. Shortly after Conrad Black's Hollinger company took over Southam, the JCI's funding was withdrawn and the investment failed just before the Internet boom in the late 1990s.
Between late 2005 and early 2011, Torstar also heals a 20 percent stake in CTVglobemedia , a media company that broke up when BCE Inc. , the parent company of Bell Canada, acquired the company's media assets. These were the reasons for some disputes because "CTVgm" also owned The Globe and Mail , which in turn was a competitor of the Torstar "Toronto Star". However, there was no editorial link between the two newspapers. Torstar announced in September 2010 that it had entered into an agreement to sell its shares. The sale was completed in 2011. On May 2, 2014, the sale of romance publisher Harlequin Enterprises , for $ 415 million to HarperCollins, was announced.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Officers and Senior Executives
- ↑ Atkinson Principles - Torstar CORPORATION. Retrieved May 27, 2019 .
- ↑ Milestones in Torstar History. Retrieved November 15, 2016 .
- ^ Dana Flavelle: Major publishers invest in Canada's oldest news agency. In: Toronto Star . November 26, 2010, accessed November 25, 2015 .
- ↑ Torstar acquires 25 per cent stake in Blue Ant Media. In: Toronto Star. Retrieved July 31, 2015 .
- ↑ Struggling Torstar wagers $ 200-million on a niche digital company. In: The Globe and Mail. July 29, 2015, accessed July 31, 2015 .
- ↑ Is spinoff in the cards? In: Financial Post. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on July 31, 2015 .
- ↑ Tim Kiladze: Torstar walks away from BCE-CTV smiling. In: The Globe and Mail . September 13, 2010, accessed September 6, 2012 .
- ^ News Corp. to Buy Harlequin for $ 415M. New York Post, May 2, 2014, accessed November 15, 2016 .
- ↑ Jeremy Greenfield: News Corp Acquires Harlequin, Adds to HarperCollins Portfolio. In: Digital Book World. May 2, 2014, accessed November 15, 2016 .