#media monopolization

[newsfromstolenland]

Atlantic Canada's largest newspaper chain is now officially owned by Toronto-based Postmedia Network Inc.

On Monday, Postmedia confirmed the closing of its $1-million purchase of SaltWire Network Inc. and the Halifax Herald Ltd. in a short statement on its website. The sale was approved by a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge on Aug. 8.

Andrew MacLeod, Postmedia's president and CEO, said his company is "delighted" to welcome the new media properties, saying the sale "preserves their vital role within the community."

Full article

Let's explore why this is a very bad thing.

Postmedia, the company that just bought a chain of over two dozen Atlantic canada newspapers, is known for many things- none of them good.

This is an incomplete list of harmful things that Postmedia and its executives have done/are known for:

Right-wing politics. "The National Post was founded in 1998 by Conrad Black, who has connections to conservative politics and sat as a Conservative Party member of the United Kingdom's House of Lords. The Post has always been aligned with the right side of the political spectrum. ..."Just in the past couple of years, Postmedia has issued an edict stating that they should move even farther to the right, so they're very reliably conservative," said [Media journalist Marc] Edge. "In fact, [they] endorse Conservative candidates often over the objections of their local editors.""

Union busting. "They employed a mix of cajoling (such as with buyouts and raises), entreaties to preserve the paper’s uniquely collegial newsroom culture, office-wide memos decrying the havoc a union would wreak, and, according to CWA Canada President Martin O’Hanlon, one-on-one meetings between staff and management."

Monopolization of canadian news media. "Postmedia Network’s purchase of Saltwire Network will extend its grip from coast to coast, as it already dominates Western Canada with eight of the nine largest dailies in the three westernmost provinces. This purchase will give Postmedia the largest dailies in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland to go along with the largest in New Brunswick, which it acquired from the Irving Oil family two years ago."

Cuts to pensions and benefits while giving large bonuses to executives. "...several top Postmedia executives had received enormous retention bonuses at a time of aggressive belt-tightening (after which many left regardless), and second, the March 2017 announcement that benefits and pensions would be curtailed significantly."

Already beginning to lay off staff from the Atlantic canada newspapers they now own. "...the long-term future of workers in departments like circulation, advertising, customer service, finance and production remains uncertain. "Staff believe maintaining local jobs in the community is critical to retaining both subscribers and clients," the union said. Last week, the union representing workers at The Telegram confirmed that four of the paper's 13 newsroom positions will be eliminated."

More reading: source 1, source 2

Tagging: @allthecanadianpolitics

[machetesquirrel]

Every so often I remember that Disney+ has the foreign distribution rights to Doctor Who and a little part of me dies.

[spursthatjinglejanglejingle]

Watching a video about the development of starfield where the guy goes into detail about how zenimax wanted all their studios to create live service games and push microtransactions to inflate their revenue and make the company worth more before they get sold to microsoft and that's why fallout 76 sucked ass and bethesda started pushing paid mods and so many of their studios started making trash live service games and it's making me feel like this thinking about it

[echoesofdusk]

some more thoughts regarding Palworld

I'm actually beginning to wonder if the Pals that are so similar to Pokemon can be traced back to a freelancer or two. lots of freelancers were hired for the development of Palworld. while some Pals heavily resemble already existing Pokemon, they are kinda in the minority of the overall Pal designs, it has plenty of original designs

also wrt plagiarism accusations, I honestly think it's just best left to courts to decide in any potential lawsuits. not that tipping copyright holders for possible plagiarism is bad, but that's all it is. a tip. best to just let actual lawyers who study these laws to judge (and even actual copyright and IP lawyers will tell you just how freaking tangled copyright laws are) in the even of a possible lawsuit

[incorrect-web-novels]

THE REASON WHY RAELIANA ENDED UP AT THE DUKE’S MANSION IS GETTING AN ANIME DHJXNXNDKSKSKEND

[mattzerella-sticks]

What if Tumblr used the profit from everyone buying blue checkmarks on this site to buy Twitter from Elon?

[allhailthemightyquattro]

lack of growth is not loss.

[ludwigoat909]

Tw// grooming mention

I love it when youtube recommends me a video of someone making a callout of a youtuber I didn't even know existed for sexually harassing them and grooming 14 yo. Very nice way to trigger my pocd!

[13thpythagoras]

thousands of oil and gas billionaires: *uses private jets all the time while destroying species and ecosystems*

bootlicker media: ...

most successful musician: *uses private jets going between concerts*

bootlicker media: "How dare she!! Think of all the extra pollution she is creating. What a monster"

[losticaruss]

alright first off disclaimer that i'm not a professional in anything so this is all just speculation.

i genuinely think this is because of the internet? like. people have said before that the cycle of creation and virality has been condensed so much that any sort of trend is over in days, instead of weeks or months. so there's this sort of hyper-cycle of 'create, trend, fading into the background' that a lot of media seems to fall into (which is partially because of the trend for companies to drop media seasons at a time, rather than the classic week-by-week). and someone else, can't remember their username, has brought up that the season-binging that netflix brought on has significantly hurt the cultural effect that, tv shows specifically, have historically had (a good example is. unfortunately. supernatural simply because the episode-per-week style that was common until the late 2010s gave the audience time to connect with the characters and form a distinct community- best displayed in the extra 10 seasons that the show got after the s5 finale because of how much the fans loved the series). because of this lack of impact from shows and movies, a lot of pop culture has begun to lean back on the trends of the 80s, 90s, early 00s- i mean, even now the early 10s are beginning to see a renaissance! so Big Media has begun to see this and, rather than go to the source of the issue (what i've written earlier) they've decided to capitalize on the nostalgia-fed monster that the internet and pop culture has become. and unfortunately, it works. media corporations can make a massive profit from rebooting something from zoomer's or millenial's childhoods, put in mediocre effort, and be almost guaranteed a massive box office win, or a top 10 spot on netflix. so the cycle feeds itself- like a tornado, hollywood can made a huge profit by making passionless movies and shows, and their audiences will eat it up because of the ~nostalgia~, hollywood sees that massive profit, and they're suddenly disinterested in pushing out new media because it's become a "risk".

(but also there's something to say about the sudden explosion of 'aesthetics' as the modern day personality quiz, it's caused people to attempt to fit themselves into this one specific lifestyle, and never try anything different (see: the secret history by donna tartt). people will create new "aesthetics" built on older media, (ex: "hackercore" has a main inspiration of 90s hacker movies, specifically the matrix) and as the aesthetics rises in trends, that nostalgia is created, causing the cycle that i mentioned above).

fucking constant reboot remake reboot remake reboot remake reboot remake!!!!!!!!!! the tv has only been around for like a century you literally cannot be out of ideas already

[evilgreenbogwater]

Sorry if Ive been posting a lot about the whole current debaucle, im just insanely pissed is all.

[sluthut6000]

sometimes I dream of being able to beat politicians with chairs . maybe to death. anyways unrelated - top historical things to make trendy again in 2024 ✍️

[mensfrightsactivist]

just found we’re here on hbo and am THRILLED to find drag content that doesn’t involve rupaul

[thesewordsareallihavetogive]

LMFAO what are these cable tv writers ON

[sheep-from-rad]

breathes, I need to make a masterlist for DC. Writing Batfam is becoming too fun 

*I don't own DC also reader is gender neutral. this could be applied to yandere batfam as well, i think*

Bruce, Batfam and baby! Reader would be fun to watch. This man raised children but apparently having a baby in the house made him realize that he still has a lot to learn. Reader arrives at the estate as a baby after their mom (ex fling) decides that it will be better if they will be with Bruce instead.  

If this man’s sleep schedule was bad before, now it's abysmal. It was so bad that Batfam had to step in. Baby! Reader cries at 3 a.m. and before Bruce can even stand up he sees Jason at the dark corner of the room telling him to go back to sleep because Dick already has it handled. I love the idea of baby reader’s crib being in Bruce’s room because it will be easier to reach the crying baby reader at night that way. 

There’s no such thing as too much clothes. Batfam sees something cute or a baby clothing, they are buying it. Damian is partial towards stuffed animals and he will deny it but Bruce had seen him bonding with by reading animal related baby books. I also see Damian as a possessive brother in the sense that once they have their hands on  baby! reader, they will never let anyone else hold them. Not even Bruce. 

Batfamily had to now pack another shirt whenever they go outside with baby!reader or else they’ll be coming home wet with baby drool. Every Batsibling has their alarm clocks and they’ll always fight each other on who gets to feed the baby reader. Alfred wins most of the time because the siblings get too caught up in the fighting; they just forget about feeding the baby. 

Jason will nonstop troll Bruce for sure. Bruce will be entering the dining hall all tired with baby reader in his arms and Jason will be singing, ‘A single mom who works two jobs’ meme until Bruce glares at him or tells him to stop. Coffee supply on the estate doubles because Tim is not the only one addicted now, Bruce too. 

Superhero themed onesies are banned inside the house because it became a mini competition between the batfam but don’t let anyone know that Bruce kept a Batman bib. Every bedroom is baby proofed because each sibling just loves to monopolize baby readers. 

Galas are now fun. The batfam who previously avoids galas like it’s a plague now from time to time pops in to say that Bruce is gonna be late because either baby reader got into a teeny tiny accident and needed to be changed or baby reader got into Stephanie’s make up kit and needed to be wiped clean. 

The idea of a baby!reader learning how to crawl and walk is funny too. Bruce just constantly stressed out because his little baby just disappears and then comes back in the arms of a sibling who told him that they crawled to their room. Baby reader sees older siblings training and they’ll be trying to replicate it (with the siblings making sure it won’t be dangerous of course). Just imagine Dick’s social media with a picture of him stretching and baby reader (face covered for privacy) next to him replicating it. 

Batfam was overprotective before and it became more protective now. Tim will always be quick to cover baby!reader’s face when the siblings  are out in public say for ice cream or a little shopping trip. Securities are doubled too. If one sibling is taking baby reader out, another one will be following behind and the others are on the roof.  No baby photos because let’s face it, one quick photo can land on a random newspaper and some villains might get their hands on a copy. 

Damian will always be quick to pull away baby!reader on galas especially when Bruce is surrounded by women who try flirting with him using their ‘maternal’ skills. Passing baby!reader around the gala are not allowed unless Bruce himself lets the person hold the baby!reader. 

Imagine one day Batman goes to a Justice League meeting with the baby! Reader trapped on their chest because apparently the batfam is busy and Alfred is on vacation. If Bruce only knew that the batfam lied because the JL wants to meet the baby reader. Did Justice League got overboard with the Christmas gifts the next year? Shhh… we don’t talk about that, the impromptu storage room is still full.