Tag Archives: Le-Soleil

Gesca sells six newspapers to Martin Cauchon, keeps only La Presse

This one hit like a ton of bricks: Gesca, the media company owned by Power Corporation, is selling six of its seven newspapers to Groupe Capitales Médias, a new company (literally formed on Monday and registered yesterday) owned by Martin Cauchon, former Liberal Party MP for Outremont.

The sold newspapers are:

  • Le Soleil in Quebec City
  • Le Droit in Ottawa
  • Le Nouvelliste in Trois-Rivières
  • La Tribune in Sherbrooke
  • La Voix de l’est in Granby
  • Le Quotidien in Saguenay

The purchase price wasn’t disclosed. The new owner says current management at those papers will remain in place, including Claude Gagnon, who is president of the new company and remains in charge of the regional papers.

Gesca, for its part, says it wants to focus on La Presse+ and international sales of the platform it spent $40 million to develop. It never brought the other newspapers into this system, which many people found curious. Now I guess we know why. (Negotiations took several months — La Presse says it was a year — and other parties were interested in a purchase.)

UPDATE: Some details from InfoPresse: La Presse will continue selling national ads for the regional papers, and they will continue sharing copy. Plus La Presse+ and other technology will be shared with the regional papers, according to publisher Guy Crevier.

Reaction

UPDATE: The new owners are in negotiations with the union, and it doesn’t look good.

Therrien joins blogosphere, teeveephiles rejoice

Le Soleil's Richard Therrien

Le Soleil's Richard Therrien

Allow me to add my voice to others in welcoming Le Soleil’s Richard Therrien to the blogosphere. He’ll be writing for Cyberpresse about television, tapping into his freakishly vast knowledge of everything that has ever aired, ever. (He explains his mission statement in his debut post)

Le Soleil, of course, is in Quebec City, so that changes… well, nothing. Unless he’s talking about the local news. Which he should, because local news is awesome for mistakes and stupidity, which he and I both seem to enjoy pointing out.

Le Soleil: We don’t outsource (wink, wink)

Oh snap: Quebec City’s Le Soleil is not pulling any punches in its campaign to steal as many readers as possible from the Journal de Québec, whose workers are on the street and whose content is being generated elsewhere.

Perhaps this will make both sides realize that no matter how this goes, the real winner will be their competition.

Speaking of the workers, they’re calling a one-day boycott of the Journal a success without any evidence it was followed or made an impact.