The rumours of our demise

For the past two days, Canadians have been subjected to a barrage of media reports predicting the imminent closure of the National Post.

Television and radio, and some wire services — and to a lesser extent competing newspapers — were suggesting yesterday’s edition of the Post might be the last.

Some radio hosts urged listeners to buy a souvenir final copy of the paper; one introduced a columnist from a competing daily as working for a newspaper that’s not on the verge of collapse; while another proclaimed Extra Extra the National Post may be ceasing publication.

The one bright spot was a New York Times report that referred to the Post as “Canada’s cheeky conservative paper.” At least they got that right.

The frenzy of the past couple of days was based on the possibility that the courts would reject a deal to reunite the National Post with the rest of Canwest’s publishing assets after a four-year absence. Yesterday, a Toronto court put that notion to rest and approved the transfer, thus ensuring the long-term existence and stability of the National Post.

The firestorm of uninformed speculation was ignited by one paragraph in a 33-page court filing pointing out it was doubtful the National Post could sustain operations in the absence of funding for its current — albeit minor — losses. That is the case for any operation until it crosses into profitability.

[More]