Boynton Bonus TimeHi All
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For all intents and purposes, Boynton has 3 years under his belt and he has continued the reign of incompetence and flim flummery that is the hallmark of leadership at Torstar.
Total revenue in 2016 - $685 million – in 2019 $479 million a 30% decrease.
Share price range in 2016 - $2.90 - $1.39 – in 2019 $1.05 - $.35 a decrease that is too painful to calculate but belies the new call to increasing shareholder value: “Having reduced the risk associated with our exposure to our pension liability in 2019, we believe ensuring appropriate recognition of the value of investments and assets outside our fully owned businesses are important keys to increasing shareholder value in the future.”
The following are the key achievements in 2019 from the MD&A with my assessment in brackets:
“Noteworthy developments and progress related to our transformation plan thus far include:
• Launching of paid digital subscription offerings on thestar.com. (tried and failed in the past. Abysmal content will only entice the truly desperate to subscribe as evidenced by the numbers.)
• Introducing single sign-on (user registration) on thestar.com and across all news sites within the Community Brands segment as a first step in adding value to our audiences through the enhanced collection and use of first-party data. (why did that take until 2019 to accomplish? And what precisely are you doing with the first-party data that matter to anyone?)
• Launching of potential subscription models in the Community Brands segment and fully rolling out paid subscriptions in one test market. (They have 18% penetration in Rubber Boot, Ontario at less than a dollar a subscriber. See earlier reference to flim flummery.)
• Strengthening our talent base and implementing foundational technologies in the areas of data infrastructure, advanced analytics capabilities and customer life cycle management capabilities. (Strengthened talent base? Who are we kidding? Is Wayne Parrish your poster boy for this initiative when Freddie Kruger has decamped for Sweden?)
• Completing the merger of the the eight Torstar defined benefit pension plans (the “Torstar Plans”) with the Colleges of Applied Arts & Technology Pension Plan (the "CAAT Plan"), reducing the risk associated with our exposure to defined benefit pension liabilities (Let’s start with they can’t even get the sentence right (the the eight Torstar defined benefit pension plans) Does anyone on the Board read this stuff before it gets distributed? You can be sure this idea didn’t come from Boynton or DeMarchi. It was good for the employees who rely on their pensions and takes it out of the clutches of the Keystone Kops)
Cash is down by more than $45 million since the end of 2016, dividends have been suspended, the saleable assets have been sold and VertigoScope’s revenues declined by 12.4% in 2019 alone.
Total Equity has declined from $326 million to $186 million in the last 3 years on Boynton’s watch. At this rate, they will have no equity in 3 more years.
So, when you add all this up you shouldn’t be surprised when Boynton and DeMarchi are awarded huge bonuses when the Information Circular is released next month. The brain-dead Compensation Committee abetted by a Board incapable of discerning competency from total incompetency will feel compelled to reward these clowns because to do otherwise would signal a lack of confidence. They don’t trouble themselves with the damage they have inflicted on employees and shareholders by their willful ignorance and complicity in destroying every dollar of shareholder value.
MW