RE:RE:RE:Harlequin SaleI don't think Harlequin would have had the same growth under TorStar. Publishing is a competitive business, and you have to be willing to make expensive bets on unproven authors, like Megyn Kelly. There is no guarentee the publishing company would have had the same freedom or ability to take risk under TorStar.
It goes back to what one of the earlier posters said about the Board at TorStar. The voting shareholders are trust funders that haven't earned an honest dollars in decades (if ever). They use their privlidged position at TorStar to enhance their social image, and get invited to the right cocktail parties. They have no interest in giving readers what they want. I wish it wasn't true, because I think the world needs better journalism. And I used to be a paper boy for the Toronto Star as well. But I can attest to the fact that the quality of the newspaper has fallen dramatically over the last 5 years. The newspaper simply does not talk about the issues that are important to average readers. It only talks about issues that are important to trust funders who don't have to work for a living. This is coming from someone who has read the Star his entire adult life.
Where are the investigative articles discussing youth unemployment and underemployment? Where are the articles investigating the sustainability and solvency of the pension funds? Why hasn't the newspaper rang the alarm on the high levels of consumer and government debt in Ontario?
They won't talk about these issues objectively because it might offend someone and then the voting shareholders won't get invited to the fancy cocktail parties. So sad, I wish it wasn't true.
extremerisk wrote: Harlequin is doing gangbusters since the sale to Harper Collins (HC). This was clearly a mistake to sell and Harlequin was not going downhill. In fact they have a very loyal following. HC is growing ebidta and sales since they acquired Harlequin.
Here is an excerpt from recent Harper Collins report:
The HC-Harlequin combination has also helped increase international sales. HC has rebranded all overseas Harlequin offices as HarperCollins divisions while continuing to operate the existing Harlequin program. As part of developing a worldwide trade publishing program, Murray said HC has released 400 titles through its rebranded HC offices and has had international hits with such authors as Karin Slaughter and Daniel Silva.
Murray said he has “high hopes” for a range of HC forthcoming books, including Megyn Kelly’s memoir, Settle for More, and a new title from Divergent author Veronica Roth, Carve the Mark. He acknowledged that consumer traffic at stores could have been better in the first half of the year, but he hoped that the frenzy that accompanied the release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts 1 and 2 will bring more people into bookstores for the rest of the year.