Torstar muscles in

The Record newspaper based in Kitchener has launched a 15,000 controlled circulation business magazine called Rex. Not such an unusual event for the City Media Group of Torstar, which owns the Toronto Star, Record, Spectator, indeed the entire Golden Horseshoe of dailies around the western end of Lake Ontario. But this launch, like the launch of a lifestyle magazine in Hamilton, is somewhat different since it is predatory.

The products take on such longstanding titles as Hamilton magazine (owned now by Osprey) and, in the case of the Waterloo Region market, a long-established independent business magazine called Exchange, published by the Jon R Group. The flexing of Torstar's muscles in the markets that it dominates, seems to be calculated to drive out the established titles and give it a monopoly not only in newspapers but in glossy print. Fortunately, the magazines are somewhat banal and generally not very good,by and large. Perhaps readers won't be diverted. But it is hard in a low-margin business like a regional publication to stand up to the clout of a Torstar.