Conrad Black, whose Hollinger International Inc. owns the Chicago Sun-Times, expanded his reach in Canadian newspaper publishing Monday by purchasing the Toronto-based Financial Post from Sun Media Corp.
In return, Sun Media will get four Ontario dailies owned by Hollinger and will pay Hollinger $100 million.
Hollinger and its Canadian subsidiary, Southam Inc., already control more than 40 percent of the daily newspaper circulation in Canada.
Buying the Financial Post, with a daily circulation of 100,000 and weekend circulation of 200,000, gives Hollinger its first newspaper in Toronto, Canada’s largest city.
The deal also eliminates a competitor for Black’s national newspaper, which is slated to begin publishing in October.
This transaction is the latest move by the Chicago-based newspaper company to expand and reorganize its sprawling newspaper empire, which includes 117 dailies in the United States, Canada, Britain and Israel. Earlier this year Hollinger sold about 40 percent of its U.S. newspapers, primarily to reduce debt.
Sun Media will control about 15 percent of the nation’s daily newspaper circulation, picking up the Ontario dailies in Hamilton, Cambridge, Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo.
