The Scotiabank Herald: The Horror?
October 10th, 2009
It’s a spectre that should, by rights, send a chill down the spine of every red-blooded journalist - and citizen, for that matter.
Control of Canada’s leading daily newspapers, titles like the Ottawa Citizen, Vancouver Province, Calgary Herald and Montreal Gazette, has reportedly fallen into the hands of … a bank.
Yes, a bank, Scotiabank by name, formerly the Bank of Nova Scotia, trailed by a clutch of creditors of the crumbling Canwest Global media empire.
So is it curtains? The end of giving our fedoras a rakish tilt and murmuring “Honey, get me rewrite” down the phone line? What will it be now for the staffers of Canwest’s print newsrooms across the country? Clicking a mouse on “Powerchequing”, then linking to “Gain Plan” with “Paperless Recordkeeping” and the “Private Client Group?”
And what about the people of Canada, the citizens whose last, best defence against untrustworthy government, unscrupulous tycoons - and yes, banks - is the fourth estate, a free press? In this context, Canwest’s collapse constitutes one of the gravest threats to our country’s political culture since big-dollar patronage placed a chokehold on our ruling party machines.
But to the men and women who’ve toiled loyally for Canwest, and for the legion of retirees and ‘rightsized’ former employees who rely on the group’s pensions, a much more basic set of threats looms up from the ashes of the House of Asper.
Will Scotiabank emerge as a safe pair of hands, ensuring that management of the newspaper group minimizes layoffs and arbitrary cuts to severance packages and pension payments? Or will the bank’s supervisory role provide a smokescreen for Canwest’s executive holdovers, desperate to impress future owners with their slashing skills?
Early indications from the group’s television operations are not encouraging. Along with the National Post Company, this region of Canwest’s distressed dominion went under creditor protection this past week. Some former employees claim their salary continuance has evaporated, and we’ve heard from others whose severance packages have been given the chop.
A growing number of concerned news professionals still in Canwest’s employ have pledged to compile details of abuses and make them public. Their reasoning is sound. Judging by the experience of employees at other corporations that have undergone creditor protection, such as Air Canada, this transitional period is hardly a time for staffers to keep mum about maltreatment by number-crunching managers and executives.
Which raises this question. Does Scotiabank understand the extent of Canwest’s problems, and the risks each business unit faces due to past mismanagement?
It’s fair to ask: what does a bank know about managing daily newspapers?
If, as seems likely, Scotiabank soon ushers the newspapers of Canwest’s publishing wing into creditor protection, will print employees be subjected to the same cost-cutting measures now hovering over their broadcast colleagues?
Certainly, in the corporation’s own field, Scotiabank is one of Canada’s best. It boasts high customer satisfaction. Its finances are solid. This is a well-capitalized bank whose books and operations are soundly managed. Scotiabank appears to be everything Canwest management is not: solvent, creative and growing stronger.
Market analysts say that the bank doesn’t want to be in the newspaper business, and in all likelihood will seek the swiftest, most orderly reorganization possible, so that Canwest’s titles can be sold as a block, in groups or individually.
But are the bank’s executives aware of the extent of their responsibility to warn the newspapers’ suitors: “buyer beware”?
As our case, Kent vs. Don Martin, Canwest et al, graphically shows, huge question marks loom over some employees and their proclivity for straying from Canwest’s very detailed codes of journalistic practice, and related performance standards.
Any established media magnate (and most especially any newcomer to newspaper ownership) will want to examine much more than Canwest’s books. Some very basic questions need to be answered.
Have layoffs left too few copy editors? Are senior editors at titles like the National Post and the Calgary Herald able to keep pace with the demands of a changing, leaner industry? Is care taken to avoid embarrassing, costly – and wholly unnecessary – defamation lawsuits?
And what about the unseemly and chummy connections of some employees to backroom political figures? Has the Asper family’s attraction to right-wing political discourse impacted the newspapers’ ability to cover the news objectively - and profitably?
These and other unknowns pose potential pitfalls for Scotiabank, Canwest’s creditors and most especially for the future owners of Canada’s major newspapers.
It’s a concern the companies and their principals should place at the centre of their decision making. The court of public opinion will be judging their every step, coast to coast, in every city served by Canwest newsmen and women.
The employees of this stricken media group have bravely kept their newspapers on the street and newscasts on the air. They are dedicated professionals, family breadwinners and leaders in their communities.
Any party that rewards their sterling performance with harsh measures does so at its own peril.
That’s one of the few certainties in this murky and unhappy affair, one you can take to the bank.