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

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.