New Canwest owners = One Vancouver daily?

I don't normally like to write about rumours and suspicions, but what the hell...

The shuttering of one of Vancouver's two main daily newspapers has been talked about for ages. The Vancouver Sun and Province have the same owners, share staff, such as photographers, use the same printing presses, once shared the same publisher, etc. But that possibility is greater now according to a media union representative I briefly spoke to on Saturday.

The new potential owners of the Canwest chain (they still have a month to walk away) are American hedge funds. Paul Godfrey is essentially a Canadian spokesman for the group. Hedge funds are notoriously known to swoop in, make as much money as possible and leave. Their plan is to offer IPOs in this new company.

The Canwest newspapers are under bankruptcy protection, so before that protection ends, it would be best to do the dirty work (shutdown papers) now. Monies owed such as wage, severance, vacation, etc., can then be paid in pennies for each dollar or not all.

Face value, it does make sense for an owner to just have one paper serving one market than two. But both papers make money (at least they have in the past), so there was never any point in shutting one down other than threatening it during union contract negotiations.