Online ventures to help CP withstand CanWest's pullout

By STEVE LAMBERT
Canadian Press
May 13  

WINNIPEG (CP) - The president of The Canadian Press says new online ventures have put the multimedia national news agency on solid financial footing despite the imminent loss of its largest newspaper group.

"We've got good cash reserves; we're growing some new areas," Eric Morrison said Friday following CP's annual general meeting.

CanWest Global Communications  - which owns 10 major metropolitan daily papers including the National Post, Ottawa Citizen, Calgary Herald and Vancouver Sun - served notice a year ago that it planned to stop subscribing to CP June 30. The Winnipeg-based broadcaster and newspaper publisher remains free to change its mind until then.

The pullout represents a loss of about nine per cent of the news agency's overall revenue, Morrison said, although he declined to reveal a dollar figure.

Where CP is seeing growth is through content it sells to radio stations, non-news organizations that pay for access to the news wire and media websites that are becoming more advanced.

In the last year, several papers have signed up for CP's new video service, which offers roughly 20 web-quality video reports daily of news, sports and entertainment events.

"We've had a really good takeup by members of the video portion," Morrison said.

At last year's annual meeting, CP members approved a major new strategic plan to broaden the agency's commercial mandate, promote the development of online news and continue to make the service a multi-platform information provider.

"Canadian Press sits ... with $3.7 million in the bank," outgoing CP board chairman Michael Sifton, CEO of Osprey Media LP (TSX:OSP.UN), told the meeting Friday.

"Canadian Press sits today with less than 40 per cent of its revenue from newspaper members. That's compared to a deficit in the bank and 55 per cent dependent on member revenue 10 years ago."

Sifton's Osprey group owns 54 newspapers, including many smaller dailies in southern Ontario, which make strong use of CP's editorial content.

The union that represents most CP employees welcomes the extra revenue that video is bringing in, but says it has left workers juggling print, radio and video duties.

"The issue (for reporters) is what needs to be done first," said Colin Perkel, CP branch president of the Canadian Media Guild. "It's a lot of work and a lot of competing demands to be doing print stories, audio stories for radio and now video as well - all at ... roughly the same time."

CP is a co-operative owned by some of the country's major media companies. Newspapers contribute news and pictures to the service, which are combined with stories and photos from CP's own editorial staff.

CP also has also provided a French-language service since 1951. As well, Broadcast News Ltd., a division of CP, feeds news to hundreds of radio and television broadcasters across the country.

CP's news and photos go out to newspapers, radio and TV stations, as well as the Internet, around the clock, seven days a week.

This is very troubling to me as it seems like there will now be less diversity choice when it comes to how editors choose to cover a story, especially where resources are already scant (like rural Canada or international issues with Canadian content like Afghanistan).

CanWest already has a near monopoly on daily print news out here, and a pretty firm grip on local TV news.