Torstar reports stable second-quarter earnings

Torstar Corp., publisher of the Toronto Star, reported stable earnings in its second quarter despite continuing challenges in print advertising, the company said.

Segmented adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, commonly known as EBITDA, were $32.5 million for the three months ended June 30. That’s down $1.1 million from $33.6 million in the second quarter of 2013, Torstar said Wednesday.

Total segmented revenue was $237.3 million for the quarter. That’s down $18.1 million, or 7.1 per cent, from $255.4 million in the year-earlier period.

Net income attributable to equity shareholders was $19.7 million, or 25 cents per share, in the quarter, up $1.7 million from $18 million in the year-earlier period, the company said.

               

 

Thomson Reuters rides cost cuts to higher earnings

Thomson Reuters Corp., the provider of financial data and news, reported second-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates as cost cuts buoyed results.

Earnings excluding items were 51 cents a share, exceeding the 46-cent average of predictions compiled by Bloomberg. The New York-based company said it plans to repurchase as much as $1 billion of its shares by the end of 2015.

A cost-reducing plan for the financial and risk business, announced in October, helped boost results, Reuters said.

The news provider reaffirmed its 2014 outlook, including revenue comparable to last year and a margin for adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of 26 per cent to 27 per cent. That margin improved to 27.8 per cent in the second quarter from 27.6 per cent a year earlier.
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Tweeting from courtroom impresses Nova Scotia top judge

A top judge in Nova Scotia says he is surprised at the positive impact live-tweeting inside the courtroom has had after the province’s judiciary recently relaxed the rules on the use of Twitter in the courts.
Chief Justice Joseph Kennedy of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court allowed reporters to live-tweet proceedings during the trial of Lyle Howe, a Halifax lawyer convicted of sexual assault.
“I couldn’t get over how well it had worked,” Kennedy said in an interview, describing it as the closest thing to gavel-to-gavel coverage he has seen.
“I didn’t think it was going to be as accurate as it turned out to be. I have to say that I was very impressed.
“I’d come back (to my office) occasionally and go on the computer after I’d been to the courtroom — I’d tell my colleagues that I used to have to come back here to find out what happened,” he said, kidding.
Full CP story

Toronto architect documents Sammy Yatim shooting with iPhone

The Toronto architect, who had returned from a business trip at 10 p.m., had no intention of committing an act of citizen journalism when he took out his iPhone, with its powerful 30 frame-per-second video camera. “My reason for filming was nothing more profound than showing my friends on Facebook what a crazy thing had happened outside my house,” he said last week. “I wasn’t trying to document or be altruistic.”
Link to full Star story

Andrew Cochran to oversee implementation of CBC News strategy 2020

Andrew Cochran

J-Source reports that Andrew Cochran, CBC’s senior managing director for Atlantic Canada, is taking on a new role, overseeing the implementation of the public broadcaster’s Strategy 2020 for news operations. 
Editor-in-chief and general manager Jennifer McGuire said in a memo to staff that Cochran will be responsible for all CBC News strategies and will represent CBC News’s interests in real estate projects and regulatory issues. He will start his new role on Aug. 11 in Toronto.
Cochran got his start at CTV where he produced Canada-AM while still in his early 20s. He later established his an independent production company before joining CBC.