THE FUTURE OF THE MEDIA IN QUEBEC IN 2019

THE FUTURE OF THE MEDIA IN QUEBEC - 
By Bernard Bujold - 
The future of the major media in Quebec is in a very moribund situation.... 
La Presse+ must eliminate 15 jobs by the end of December 2019 and the 6 dailies of the Capitales Médias group are clinging to a cooperative project, but the Government of Quebec (Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon) has stated that the financing package is far from being completed (attached) and that failure at this level will force the group to go bankrupt by the end of December 2019.
The trustee and the employees promoting the cooperative project have until December 18 to complete their search for the $16 million financing. Half of it had been aligned, i.e. $8.1 million, but Desjardins has chosen to withdraw, which makes it difficult to find one or more partners who will want to provide the missing millions! 
Ideally, each of the six media outlets of the Capitales Médias group should have been sold locally and separately, but the transaction would now be very complicated since the debts and assets are common. The former owner Martin Cauchon could have separated the media from the group and sold them by the piece before the bankruptcy was legally called, but once the process began, it was almost impossible, even illegal. Indeed, how can we sell, for example, Le Soleil without including in the price a portion of the total debts of the entire group? It's like wanting to buy a table from someone who's bankrupt. You have to make an auction to be fair to all creditors. The trick is to sell before you declare bankruptcy. 
When you think of the importance that Le Soleil and Le Droit have had in the history of French Canada, you can conclude that nothing is eternal and of course this is very sad... 
To be continued. 

SEE STORY NEW BUSINESS PLAN

SEE STORY JOBS AT LA PRESSE + 

SEE STORY ON THE PROJECT OF A COOPERATIVE GROUPE CAPITALES MÉDIAS