Purchase part of larger Transcon internet strategy

Transcontinental Inc. bought Zoupla Communications Inc., operator of the French-language cooking website Recettes.qc.ca, according to a story in the Globe and Mail. It said that this relatively small deal (sources familiar said it was only a few million dollars) is part of a larger plan to spend more than $50-million over the next four years boosting Transcon's presence on the Internet.

Transcontinental CEO Luc Desjardins told the Globe that the company wants to buy several small, on-line properties in Canada that it can build into websites with national audiences. The company already operates 70 websites related to its consumer magazines and community newspapers.

"We firmly believe that [spending] $50-million on the Internet is . . . a minimum," he said. "Some of it will be internally . . . some of it will be through acquisitions here and there. But we're not limiting ourselves to that $50-million."