From Politics to Profit: The Commercialization of Canadian Daily Newspapers, 1890-1920

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McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 1997 - Business & Economics - 224 pages
Minko Sotiron describes how, in their drive to maximize profits, publishers abandoned partisan politics and adopted sensationalistic journalism to build audiences for advertisers. He analyses the changes newspapers underwent in both content and appearance as the number of "fluff" pieces increased and hard news stories decreased, headlines became larger, prose became simpler, and illustrations and photographs became more abundant. From Politics to Profit highlights the increasingly powerful role of the press barons - Lord Atholstan, John Ross Robertson, Joseph Atkinson, Walter Nichol, Clifford Sifton, and the Southam family. Sotiron provides a case study of the first Canadian newspaper chain, which formed the basis for modern mass communication empires, and shows how the Southams contributed to the disappearance of independent newspapers in Canada.
 

Contents

Introduction
3
1 Public Myth and Private Reality
10
2 Big Business
23
3 Publisher Power and the Rise of the Business Manager
39
4 It Pays to Advertise
52
5 Competition and Collusion
70
6 Concentration
93
7 Patronage and Independence
106
8 Joining the Élite
125
9 Interest Politics
136
Conclusion
156
Notes
163
Bibliography
193
Index
211
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About the author (1997)

Minko Sotiron is professor of history, John Abbott College.

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