Thomson Pares Down Further p. 11

By: MARK FITZGERALD ACCELERATING ITS "STRATEGIC marketing groups" reorganization and its parent corporation's move away from printed newspapers, Thomson Newspapers announced it would sell 12 of its remaining 22 Canadian daily newspapers to Hollinger International.
Sale of six of those papers, located in the Maritime provinces and Newfoundland, was announced April 30.
On May 7, Thomson said it will also sell six Ontario dailies and the weekly Standard in Elliot Lake, Ontario, to Hollinger.
In its April 30 announcement, Thomson also said it was folding Thomson News Service, Canada, and Thomson Media Sales, which had handled national advertising sales for its Canadian newspapers.
The moves are all part of a reorganization launched last year to transform Thomson from a traditional newspaper chain to a broad-based marketing and communications company. To that end, Thomson has been shedding many of its far-flung newspapers and organizing the others in geographically tighter "strategic marketing groups."
This latest sale to Hollinger International, publisher of
the Chicago Sun-Times, is a case in point.
"A key to our long-term growth strategy in Canada is to build more complete marketing businesses around our newspapers in response to the changing needs of our customers," Thomson Newspapers president and CEO Dick Harrington said.
"As we continue to successfully implement this innovative approach, which affords us the opportunity to optimize market potential, we have concluded that markets where we're located in the Maritimes, Newfoundland and in several Ontario locations do not fit within this strategy."
In its agreement in principle with Hollinger, Thomson will sell two Newfoundland dailies: the 40,000-circulation Evening Telegram in St. John's and the 10,000-circulation Western Star in Corner Brook; the 22,000-circulation Guardian in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island; three Nova Scotia dailies: the 10,000-circulation Evening News in New Glasgow, 8,000-circulation Daily News in Truro, and the 30,000-circulation Cape Breton Post in Sydney. Also included in the sale is the 8,000-circulation weekly Northern Light in Bathurst, New Brunswick.
As part of the transaction, the companies said, Hollinger will transfer three Alberta weeklies with a combined circulation of 8,000 to Thomson: the Taber Times; Vauxhall Advance; and the Sunny South News in Coaldale.
"The newspapers . . . will link up with Thomson's [22,000-circulation] Lethbridge Herald to form an emerging strategic marketing group," Thomson said in a statement.
This latest Hollinger-Thomson transaction is the third between the two Canadian newspaper giants in the past year. Last summer, Thomson sold 24 dailies to Hollinger in two separate transactions.
The most recent transaction should close this summer, the companies said.
The six Thomson papers to be shed in Ontario are the 17,000-circulation Standard-Freeholder in Cornwall; 16,000-circulation Chatham Daily News; 5,000-circulation Northern Daily News in Kirkland Lake; 23,000-circulation Observer in Sarnia; 26,000-circulation Sudbury Star; and the 11,000-circulation
?("A key to our long-term growth strategy in Canada is to build more complete marketing businesses around our newspapers...We have concluded that markets where we're located in the Maritimes, Newfoundland and in several Ontario locations do not fit withing this strategy.") [Caption]
?(Dick Harrington, president andCEO, Thomson Newspapers) [Photo & Caption]