Saturday 13 June 2009

Sun stiffs kids

PKP's ongoing campaign to strip all of the "give" at Sun Media community newspapers while maximizing the "take" now extends to sponsorship of amateur sports teams.

The Welland Tribune says Sun Media is withdrawing the Tribune's financial sponsorship of the boys and girls basketball tournaments in the community.

The Tribune says Quebecor's decision also applies to Sun Media sponsorship of other tournaments in Niagara, such as the St. Catharines Standard and Niagara Falls Review basketball tournaments, as well as other events sponsored by Sun Media newspapers.

Organizers in Welland say upcoming boys and girls basketball team tournaments previously sponsored by the Tribune will be held as scheduled while the search for new sponsors continues.

Ken Koyama, publisher of the Tribune, told readers the newspaper will continue to support both tournaments with “excellent” coverage and promotion.

Coverage, but no cash for amateur sports in the community? That is taking "community" out of community newspapers.

No doubt the decision to axe sponsorships will be felt at newspapers across the Sun Media chain.

Koyama blames the recession for the elimination of community sports sponsorships.

We could use most of George Carlin's seven words to react to that Quebecor-fed B.S.

PKP is just squeezing every last cent out of his newspapers, shafting the employees who produce them and the communities who have supported them for decades.

But hey, bidding for ownership of an NHL team like the Montreal Canadiens can be costly.

5 comments:

  1. What a joke. The recession is a bullshit excuse. PKP just keeps cutting and cutting and his compliant minions, or publishers as they are also called, keep doing his bidding. And with fewer staff how is the Tribune going to provide excellent coverage and promotion?
    What incentive does that community have to keep buying the Tribune when measures such as this are taken? None would be the correct answer.

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  2. Communities across Canada are feeling the brunt of Peladeau's poor and illogical decisions. This is just another example. PKP and his Merry Band of Corporate Yes-Men don't know the meaning of "community newspaper" and certainly don't know how to run them.

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  3. Yeah, way to get your name out in the community and who knows, maybe even garner some future subscribers of the newspaper. Cancel a kids event, pathetic. Really, how much did that cost in comparison to the extra publicity one gets for being a sponsor of an event?

    I hate this company.

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  4. Every one of these comments should be a letter to the editor. Let them know this garbage isn't going unnoticed. Let them know these historic newspapers with rich connections to their towns and cities are being raped and pillaged so (PKP) can own a hockey team.

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  5. @anonymous 8:10 p.m. - Great suggestion, but do you think the Tribune would allow letters like that in the paper? If any editor in the chain published a letter critical of the paper, Quebecor or PKP, do you think they'd be in that job the next day?

    @anonymous 5:45 p.m. - They didn't cancel the Tribune tournament, just the sponsorship of it. But you're right, the extra publicity couldn't hurt the paper. And I love your last statement - I am sure most employees would agree with it

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