Slash and Burn: How Cheap Debt Killed the News

We’ve long heard about how the news business is failing - layoff after layoff, media execs have claimed that they have had no choice but to make cutbacks.

In Bell’s latest round of 4800 layoffs, CEO Mirko Babic defended his decision to a parliamentary committee, claiming the company was struggling in a tough economic environment - and that news was part of what was bringing them down.

But is that the full story? 

Because before Google and Facebook ate up advertising dollars, the Canadian media companies of the 90s made a bad bet. And it failed to pay off. 

And now… the news industry is taking the fall. 

Further reading:

• Corporate ownership of media has failed Canadians, Marc Edge, Canadian Dimension, 2024
• Bell Media Has Cut 1 In 4 Positions Since 2020 as Parent Company Keeps Dividend Rolling, The Deep Dive, 2024
•  Media convergence, acquisitions and sales in Canada, CBC, 2010
• Convergence after the collapse: The ‘catastrophic’ case of Canada, Marc Edge, Media, Culture and Society, 2011
• Financialization and the “Crisis of the Media”: The Rise and Fall of (Some) Media Conglomerates in Canada, Dwayne Winseck, Canadian Journal of Communication, 2010

Host: Jesse Brown & Cherise Seucharan

Credits: Caleb Thompson (Audio Editor), Bruce Thorson (Senior Producer), André Proulx (Production Coordinator), Karyn Pugliese (Editor-in-Chief)

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