The head of the B.C. Liberal government's Progress Board has made progress of his own in stemming his company's first-quarter losses.

Progress Board chairman David Black--no relation to disgraced publisher Conrad Black--owns 95 newspapers and 14 regional printing operations, according to a biography on the provincial government's Web site (www.gov.bc.ca/).

David Black's papers include the West Ender, the Richmond Review, the North Shore Outlook, and the Surrey Leader.

His Victoria-based company, Black Press, is not listed on a stock exchange, so it's not required to reveal its net income or loss.

However, a publicly traded minority shareholder in Black Press--Torstar Corp.--recently reported that it absorbed a $0.2-million loss in the first quarter of 2004 from its investment in Black Press.

Torstar, which owns the Toronto Star, has a 19.35-percent equity stake in Black Press. Based on Torstar's equity, the Straight estimated that Black Press's quarterly loss was likely in the $1-million range.

Black told the Straight that he has never publicly revealed his company's profit or loss, but he said it could be calculated by multiplying Torstar's returns by five.

"For 25 years, we've always tried to invest the proceeds and grow rather than build up a big bottom line and pay a lot of tax," Black said. "So we've deliberately always had a strategy of doing that. Piling up a lot of cash doesn't make sense to me, so I reinvest it right away. It gives us lots of write-offs, which knocks down the pretax and, therefore, the after-tax profit."

Earlier this year, Black's company fired two award-winning journalists, Monday magazine news editor Russ Francis and Chilliwack Progress editor Rick Collins.

Torstar also reported that in the first quarter of 2003, its share of Black Press's losses was $0.4 million. This would have put Black Press's first-quarter losses around $2 million in 2003.

On December 11, 2002, Torstar announced that it paid $20.6 million for its stake in Black Press, which had annual revenues of approximately $240 million that year.

For all of 2003, Torstar reported a net income of $0.1 million from its investment in Black Press.

"We kind of manage the business by the EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization] level, which is what most people do," Black said. "That's going very, very well. It's way up. It's probably almost doubled since Torstar bought in."