National Post Totally Explained

Everything about National Post totally explained

The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, Ontario, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by CanWest Global Communications and is published every Monday through Saturday. It was founded in 1998 by media magnate Lord Conrad Black.

History

Origins

The Post was founded in 1998 by Conrad Black to provide a voice for Canadian conservatives and to combat what he and many Canadian conservatives consider to be a liberal bias in Canadian newspapers. Black built the new paper around the Financial Post, an established financial newspaper in Toronto which he purchased from Sun Media in 1997. Financial Post was retained as the name of the new paper's business section.
   Outside Toronto, the Post was built on the editorial, distribution, and printing infrastructure of Black's national newspaper chain, formerly called Southam Newspapers, that included papers such as the Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Calgary Herald, and Vancouver Sun. The Post became Black's national flagship title, and massive amounts of start-up spending were dedicated to the product in its first few years under editor Ken Whyte.
   Beyond his ideological vision, Black was attempting to compete more directly with Kenneth Thomson's media empire led by Canada's The Globe and Mail, which perceives itself as establishment newspaper.
   When the Post launched, its editorial stance was conservative. It advocated a "unite-the-right" movement to create a viable alternative to the Liberal government of Jean Chrétien, and was a very large supporter of the Canadian Alliance. The Post's op-ed page has included dissenting columns by liberals such as Linda McQuaig, as well as conservatives including Mark Steyn, Diane Francis, Andrew Coyne and David Frum.
   The Post's unique magazine-style graphic and layout design won numerous awards. It was a retro look — with echoes of 1930s design — jazzed up with eye-catching touches, such as oversized headlines, layering of multi-coloured type, reverse type, and bold colours.

Sale to CanWest Global

The Post was unable to maintain momentum in the market without continuing to spend heavily and accumulate mounting financial losses. At the same time, Conrad Black was becoming preoccupied by impending troubles with his debt-heavy media empire, Hollinger International. Black finally decided to divest his Canadian media holdings, including the Post – a move that shocked Post supporters and delighted the paper's ideological adversaries. Black sold the Post to CanWest Global Communications Corp, controlled by Israel Asper, in two stages – 50% in 2000, along with the entire Southam newspaper chain, and the remaining 50% in 2001. CanWest Global also owns the Global Television Network, and there has been heavy cross-promotion between the company's newspaper and television properties.
   In September 2001, the Aspers imposed an austerity regime on the paper, forcing editor Ken Whyte to drop the arts and sports sections. The move triggered a plunge in circulation from which the Post never fully recovered, even when the dropped sections were restored. The Aspers' ownership of the paper, combined with drastic budget cuts and staff layoffs, triggered a number of staff defections as the newspaper's future seemed increasingly uncertain. Rumours about the Post's imminent closure were chronic.
   In early 2003, Izzy Asper purged top management at the Post, including Whyte and deputy editor Martin Newland, due to political differences and the paper's heavy financial losses, which were estimated to have peaked at $60 million annually. Asper hired Matthew Fraser as editor-in-chief. He had been the paper's media columnist from its inception and was regarded as close to the Aspers. Fraser's tenure at the helm of the Post was marked by further budget cuts, restructuring, and staff layoffs, while doubts continued about the long-term future of the money-losing paper in its commercial war with the Globe and Mail. Fraser also was forced to fire two Post writers, including columnist Elizabeth Nickson, for plagiarism. Another high-profile gossip columnist was fired for a salacious article about Canada's Governor General. Staff defections continued, notably among high-profile columnists such as Mark Steyn, who were loyal to the conservative Post under Conrad Black.
   Under Fraser's editorship, the Post gained notoriety in Canadian media circles for its regular feature called "CBC Watch" – inspired in part by The Daily Telegraph's "Beeb Watch" in Britain -- which pointed out errors of fact and supposed evidence of left-wing and anti-Israeli bias at the public broadcaster. "CBC Watch" infuriated the CBC's supporters, and critics claimed the Post was attacking the CBC to defend the commercial interests of the private television network, Global TV, owned by the Asper family. Izzy Asper had long railed against the state-owned CBC, and once declared publicly that it should be "expunged".
   Izzy Asper died suddenly in October 2003, leaving his media empire in the hands of his two sons, Leonard and David Asper, the latter serving as chairman of the Post. Fraser departed in 2005 after the arrival of a new publisher, Les Pyette – the paper's seventh publisher in seven years. Pyette, a former publisher of the racy tabloid, Toronto Sun, aggressively took the Post downmarket with splashy tabloid-style tone and look. Fraser's deputy editor, Doug Kelly succeeded him as editor, though Pyette was regarded as firmly in control of the newsroom as a hands-on publisher. Pyette suddenly departed only seven months after his arrival, replaced by Gordon Fisher, a career Southam newspaperman who had briefly served as interim publisher a few years earlier.

The Post today

Since Israel Asper's acquisition of the National Post, the paper has become a strong voice in support of the state of Israel and its government. The Post was one of the few Canadian papers to offer unreserved support to Israel during its conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon during 2006.
    One of its columnists referred to Hezbollah as "cockroaches." Canadian pundits argue whether the Post's support of Israel is a legacy of its late founder's political ideology or a shrewd business manoeuvre. The Post during Ken Whyte's editorship was strongly associated with the personality of proprietor Conrad Black, just as the paper during Matthew Fraser's editorship was associated with Izzy Asper. Today the Post has to some extent abandoned the neo-conservative ideology that, while often controversial, gave the Post a distinct voice and loyal readership. Many of its rival papers, meanwhile, have copied its unique design and layout features. In a national newspaper market considered too thin to sustain two products, the Post has struggled against the Globe and Mail, which has the advantages of a loyal readership and a history stretching back to the mid-19th century. The Post's entry into the Canadian newspaper market, while dazzling during its aggressively marketed start-up phase, was poorly timed because the entire newspaper sector was entering a period of structural decline, which continues today, as readers turn towards the Internet and other sources for information and distraction. The Post effectively abandoned its claim as a national newspaper in 2006 as print subscriptions were dropped in Atlantic Canada and then print editions were removed from all Atlantic Canadian newsstands except in Halifax as of 2007.
   Politically, the Post has retained a conservative editorial stance under the Aspers' ownership, but has become markedly less strident. The Asper family has long been strong supporters of the Liberal Party, though they've always had libertarian leanings. Izzy Asper was once leader of the Liberal Party in his home province of Manitoba. The Aspers had controversially fired the publisher of the Ottawa Citizen, Russell Mills, for calling for the resignation of Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien.
   However, the Post – careful to retain the loyalty of its conservative readers – endorsed the Conservative Party of Canada in the 2004 election when Fraser was editor. The Conservatives narrowly lost that election to the Liberals. After the election, the Post surprised many of its conservative readers by shifting its support to the victorious Liberal government of prime minister Paul Martin, and was highly critical of the Conservatives and their leader, Stephen Harper. The paper switched camps again in the runup to the 2006 election (in which the Conversatives won a minority government). During the election campaign, David Asper appeared publicly several times to endorse the Conservatives.
   The Post continues to lose money – financial analysts estimate annual losses at about $15 million – and rumours persist that the Aspers will close down the Post due to its lack of profitability. Others believe, however, that the Aspers will keep the newspaper going in order to have a political voice in Canada, notably on issues such as Israel. The Post today operates under the editorial direction of David Asper, an outspoken and controversial figure who is generally considered to lack the stature and business acumen of his late father.
   The Post's Toronto edition is printed at the Toronto Star presses in Vaughan, Ontario. The Star is one of the Post's commercial rivals in the fiercely competitive Toronto newspaper market: Toronto is the fourth largest media centre in North America, after New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago.
   On September 27, 2007, the Post unveiled a major redesign of its appearance. Guided by Gayle Grin, the Post's managing editor of design and graphics, the redesign features a standardization in the size of typeface and the number of typefaces used, cleaner font for charts and graphs, and — perhaps the most striking portion of the redesign — the move of the nameplate banner from the top to the left side of Page 1 as well as each section's front page.

Criticism

Nazi-ordered yellow badges. Later on the same day, experts began coming forward to deny the accuracy of the Post story. The story proved to be false, but not before it had been picked up by a variety of other news media and generated comment from world leaders. Comments on the story by the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper caused Iran to summon Canada's ambassador to Tehran for an explanation.
   On May 24, 2006, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, Doug Kelly, published an apology for the story on Page 2, admitting that it was false and the National Post hadn't exercised enough caution or checked enough sources.
   The controversy surrounding the falsehood of the articles had badly affected the Post's credibility and journalistic integrity. Critics alleged that hasty production of the article without any fact checking is a clear sign of the paper's sensationalism.
   Another major criticism of the Post is its unadulturated support of Israel. Due to the fact that it's one of the few media outlets in Canada that supports its occupation of Palestinian land, some have pointed out that it sees itself as the "lone ranger" in the Isreali cause. It is also criticised by some Canadian pundits of romanticizing and downplaying the plight of the Palestinians in the conflict.
   Since 1998, the Canadian Islamic Congress has been active monitoring media coverage for anti-Muslim or anti-Islam sentiment and has issued reports highlighting its findings. It has opposed the use of phrases such as "Islamic guerrillas," "Islamic insurgency" and "Muslim militants" saying that terms like "militant" or "terrorist" should be used without a religious association "since no religion teaches or endorses terrorism, militancy or extremism." The Congress has singled out the National Post as being "consistently is No. 1" as an anti-Islam media outlet.
   A number of writers for the National Post have responded to the the CIC's accusations. Alexander Rose, wrote that "judging by its [CIC's] support for the [2001] Durban Conference, during which hook-nosed Jews were equated with apartheid and genocide, the CIC doesn't seem to have problems with some kinds of truly inflammatory racist language" and that the CIC's "fetish for censorship in the interest of "social harmony," as the CIC puts it, reeks of the very authoritarianism oppressing Muslims in Egypt, Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia." In addition, Rose stated that "By editing out bad language, it seems, the CIC believes that correct thoughts will result, even at the necessary expense of reporting the truth." Robert Fulford wrote that the CIC "justifies its existence mainly by complaining about acts of prejudice that haven't happened" and that "it's ridiculous to suggest that we avoid the subject of religion when crimes are committed in the name of that religion by men and women considered part of it." whileJonathan Kay wrote that "the folks at the Canadian Islamic Congress purport to be the arbiters of what can and can't be said in this country" and that CIC President Elmasry is "the country's self-appointed judge of all that's hateful."

Editors in chief

Kenneth Whyte, 1998–2003
Matthew Fraser, 2003–2005
Doug Kelly, 2005–present

Current editorial positions

Doug Kelly, Editor-in-Chief

Stephen Meurice, Deputy Editor

Jonathan Harris, Executive Editor

Jonathan Kay, Managing Editor, Comment

Sarah Murdoch, Managing Editor, Features

Ian Karleff, Managing Editor, Financial Post

Terence Corcoran, FP Editor

Diane Francis, FP Editor-at-large

Columnists

Conrad Black

Don Martin

John Ivison

Barbara Kay

Gerald Owen

Jacob Richler

Rick Spence

Fr. Raymond J. de Souza

George TorokFurther Information

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