Rogers Media selling magazine content to Postmedia papers for monthly special section

Rogers Media has struck a partnership deal with the Post Media Network to supply a monthly selection of content from its magazines for a special section called Life by Design. 

The content will be drawn from well-known Rogers’ magazine titles including Chatelaine, Flare, Today’s Parent, and MoneySense. The special section will be carried in print and in the ePaper editions of 10 papers, including Vancouver Sun, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Regina Leader-Post, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, London Free Press, Windsor Star, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette (starting today) and in the National Post starting September 12.

“We are committed to bringing great content to our readers and this thoughtfully curated section from the lifestyle experts at Rogers fits our readers’ interests in areas including parenting, design, and financial planning,” said Gerry Nott, senior vice president content and senior vice president National Post in a release.

National Post offers all newsroom the chance at a buyout; not all will get one

The National Post, in the wake of similar offers at other Postmedia papers across Canada, is offering its entire newsroom the opportunity to apply for a buyout. According to J-Source, not everyone applying will receive such a payout. The employees have until Friday to decide.

The Torontoist quotes an unnamed National Post source as saying the buyout offers are "just a way of trimming the fat," our source explained; the buyout offers are "designed for people who don't want to stay anyway.""

A Toronto Life blog post says: "We have to note that just because people have been offered buyouts doesn’t mean that the Post‘s newsroom is dead or dying. The CBC offered a really broad buyout package to its staff last year and then winnowed down the number it would actually pay out."

As one commenter, Peter Rehak, said in response to the J-Source post:

Having been through these buyout situations, the practice is to offer buyouts to everyone. Having read the NatPost memo, it is clear that employees have to apply and can be turned down. Thus, the paper will keep the ones they want.

Is this nice? No, it isn't. It happens in all industries but when it happens in the media, it gets a lot more publicity.

Prelude to a sale: National Post to join the family of CanWest dailies

If it can get permission from the courts and its senior lenders, the National Post is being moved out this Friday of its holding company, CanWest Media, to join other CanWest dailies and weeklies in CanWest Limited Partnership. This is not mere paperwork, but a means of tuning up the money-losing national daily and putting it in a place where it could be sold along with the other papers in the chain.

According to a story in the Globe and Mail, CanWest Limited Partnership will assume all of the National Post's obligations and liabilities under its pension plan; National Post employees will be offered employment with the new company.

Industry analysts say CanWest could fetch more than $1-billion for its newspaper assets as signs of life in the finances of the newspaper industry drive up interest in acquisitions.

One analyst, who asked to remain anonymous, has said that the National Post is considered a money-loser and that CanWest would want to lump it in with other more profitable papers in order to get it sold.

Chris Diceman, an analyst at Dominion Bond Ratings Service, believes if CanWest does go ahead with the rumoured plans, the company could pull in between $600-million and $900-million for the lumped together assets in a first round of bids.

“If there was a bidding war for these assets either in, or part of, creditor protection, that multiple may go up even higher than that,” he said recently.