Linda McQuaig becomes third journalist to contest Toronto Centre byelection

Linda McQuaig, author and Toronto Star columnist, is announcing today that she is vying to be the New Democratic Party candidate in the Toronto Centre byelection, The Star's Susan Delacourt reports. It’s a decision prompted by what McQuaig said is a “particularly interesting moment” in Canadian politics right now and what she sees as the right time to “not just be on the sidelines commenting, but to jump in and try to actually bring about change.” McQuaig becomes the third journalist to take the leap into what’s shaping up to be a hotly contested race — within political parties and between them. She is running for the NDP nomination against Jennifer Hollett, who worked for Much Music, CBC and CTV. And about a week ago, international author and journalist Chrystia Freeland announced she would be seeking the Liberal nomination in the race to fill Bob Rae’s old seat in Parliament. More

Amazon founder Bezos buys Washington Post

Part of the aristocracy of U.S. newspapering is to be sold to a kid from New Mexico who made it big on the web. Jeff Bezos, controlling owner of Amazon will purchase the Washington Post. The paper's controlling owners, the Graham family, has agreed to sell its flagship newspaper for $250 million in cash. Bezos gets the The Post and affiliated publications to the Washington Post Co., which owns the newspaper and other businesses. Publisher Katharine Weymouth and chief executive Donald Graham released letters to staff late today. Seattle-based Amazon will have no role in the purchase; Bezos himself will buy the news organization and become its sole owner when the sale is completed, probably within 60 days. The Post Co. will change to a new, still-undecided name and continue as a publicly traded company without The Post thereafter. Jeffrey Preston "Jeff" Bezos (pronounced beɪzəs was born on January 12, 1964.  Mailonline 

NYT takes historic hosing on sale of Boston Globe

The media seems to agree that the New York Times has taken an historic hosing on its investment in the Boston Globe. Sources as disparate as the conservative Breitbart online news to the lefty Guardian are amazed that the paper which the Times bought in 1993 for $1.1 billion has been unloaded for a mere $70 million. The new owner of the 141-year-old paper is Boston Red Sox owner John Henry. The price represents a  93% loss in 20 years. Of course, in 1993, the Internet was still not a household word. Those who knew about it understood very little of what it might mean. In October 2011 the NYT turned down an offer of $300 million for the Globe from the owner of the Orange County Register. One inducement to the Times to sell is said to be the all cash nature of Mr. Henry's offer. 

Great piece by The Star's Susan Delacourt comparing then and now in investigative journalism

"Watergate," the movie version

Excerpt:
"When journalism helped set in motion the downfall of U.S. president Richard Nixon about 40 years ago, there was no such thing as email, YouTube or social media. Now it’s nearly impossible to imagine a scandal without them.
Nixon’s Watergate may have inspired a couple of generations of investigative journalism in the decades hence, but the tools and standards for truth in reporting have moved several dimensions beyond the 1970s.
When you think about it, in fact, a digital or electronic thread has been running through all the big scandals in the news the past few weeks and months — a type of evidence largely unavailable to the crusading reporters of decades past."
The whole story

The financial romance has gone out of Harlequin as Torstar Corp profit drops 44%

Torstar Corp. reported a sharp decline in profit in the second quarter as its media division continued to struggle with plunging print advertising revenues and even its book publishing business hit an unexpected lull.
Torstar, which publishes the Toronto Star and the Metro chain of free daily newspapers, said Wednesday that net income for the quarter was $18-million or $0.23 per share, down 44% from $0.41 per share in the same period last year.
Its romance novel publishing division Harlequin posted a surprising drop, said David Holland, president and chief executive of the Toronto-based company.
“We had anticipated lower earnings at Harlequin but not to this extent,” Mr. Holland said during a conference call with analysts. “Lower volumes, including a deterioration in overseas volumes, which we were concerned about in the last quarter, were responsible for the shortfall to expectations.”
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