HOLLINGER BUYS THE REST OF THE PAPERS
By Adnews Staff
Vancouver-based Hollinger Inc. announced this week that it is buying the other six newspapers that Thomson Corp. said it was selling last week. The six papers are Ontario dailies in Sarnia, Cornwall, Chatham, Sudbury, Timmins and Kirkland Lake. The move puts Hollinger in second place in Canadian daily circulation, behind Southam Inc. of Toronto, of which Hollinger is part owner. Last week Hollinger agreed to buy Thomson dailies in St. John's and Corner Brook, Nfld, as well as in Charlottetown and in the Nova Scotia cities of Sydney, Truro and New Glasgow. At that time Thomson said it was in negotiations with an unnamed buyer for the Ontario papers. Thomson is also selling two weeklies to Hollinger: The Standard of Elliot Lake, Ont. and The Northern Light of Bathurst, N.B. With the two deals under its belt, Hollinger will own 38 dailies across Canada. Thomson will have 10 dailies with combined circulation of about 619,000, but will be down to nine when it closes the 105-year-old Vernon Daily News in B.C. next month.