Black Press buys 11 B.C. publications from Glacier Media

Victoria publisher David Black has expanded his newspaper empire in B.C. with the purchase of 11 publications from Glacier Media, including several in the Kootenays.

The two companies announced today (July 2) that Black's company, Black Press, has bought the Trail Daily Times, the Creston Valley Advance, the Fernie Free Press, the Grand Forks Gazette, the Nelson Daily News, the Weekender, the Prince Rupert Daily News, the Quesnel Advisor, the Cariboo Advisor, the 100 Mile House Advisor, and the Coast Mountain Advisor.

Black Press already owns papers in some of these markets, including the 100 Mile Free Press, the Quesnel Cariboo Observer, the Trail-Rossland News, and the Nelson Star.

The deal gives Black, a former chair of the B.C. Progress Board, greater control over the print media in these communities. Black Press is 20-percent owned by Torstar Corp.

As part of the transaction, Black also bought the Red Deer Express from Great West Newspapers, of which Glacier Media is a partner.

Black already owns the Red Deer Advocate, so this gives his company a more dominant market share over the publishing market in the central Alberta city.

Prior to the latest purchase, Black's company owned more than 80 titles in B.C.

In Metro Vancouver, its newspapers include the West Ender, the North Shore Outlook, the Surrey-North Delta Leader, the Richmond Review, and the Tri-City News.

Meanwhile, Vancouver-based Glacier Media hasn't retreated from B.C. It still owns Business in Vancouver Media Group, the Whistler Question, the Squamish Chief, the Prince George Citizen, and several other publications.

The deal also gave Great West Newspaper Group control over Black Press publications in Canmore, Alberta.

Comments

17 Comments

igbymac

Jul 3, 2010 at 4:07am

A little more convergence to help streamline the message. Enjoy. /sarcasm

Camero409

Jul 3, 2010 at 8:14am

More centralized control of the media. Gordo must be grinning from ear to ear as are the other LIbERalS. This must stop! We will never get the truth as long as monoplies like this exist. Hopefully the Straight will remain independent forever. We need a independent voice who will report the truth.

pragprog

Jul 3, 2010 at 3:15pm

Couldn't they have taken over Canwest/Vancouver Sun instead.
At least that would have decreased monopolization instead of increased it.

Joe from Idaho

Jul 3, 2010 at 4:32pm

Another Black owning the NDN and the Trail Times. It was back in the 70's when another Black owned them, but he's doing time in Florida.

binndere

Jul 4, 2010 at 9:19am

Hopefully the Nelson Daily News will be put to rest, in recent years it has become a terrible "newspaper", the local weeklys, "Nelson Star" and "Express" are far more relevant and informative than NDN.

a once proud profession

Jul 4, 2010 at 11:43am

One indicator of his mindset. David Black recently bought his second paper in Hawaii, and immediately merged the two publications. I suspect he'd like to do the same in BC, but he rarely owns two papers in the same town. In Metro Van, he's in competition with the Canwest community papers and has been busy beefing up staff in the ad sales and tech development depts.

RodSmelser

Jul 5, 2010 at 7:49am

In 1999, David Black required all his newspapers to carry editorials opposing the Nishga Treaty. A complaint by the NDP to the BC Press Council that this limited expression in his papers got the reply that if the owner can't set the tone of a paper, who can?

I have a feeling that BC Press Council ruling certainly sets the tone.

Rod Smelser

Salty One

Jul 5, 2010 at 8:36am

What's with the doom/convergence/monopoly scenarios? Some context is required here: David Black bought papers in Creston, Fernie, Prince Rupert, Nelson and Red Deer. These aren't exactly metropolises that tilt the balance unleashing some kind of apocolyptic journalism prophecy. And newspapers are a business. Whether it's widgets, wizbangs or newspapers, the name of the game is being better than the competition or swallowing them and Black just ate.

julia gillmor

Jul 5, 2010 at 12:35pm

As an employee of a small local independent in Nelson BC, we are struggling for our lives and to represent the people and culture of Nelson in the face of Black Press dominating our community.