Out are editor-in-chief Giles Gherson and publisher Michael Goldbloom.
In are new editor-in-chief Fred Kuntz and publisher Jagoda Pike, both veteran TorStar types (Gherson and Goldbloom were brought in from outside).
Here's the CP story on CTV.ca.
And here's this morning's Toronto Star take on the change, and The Globe and Mail's.
Paul Wells had this to say at Inkless Wells.
Here's the N-P story, posted to Free Republic.
At 10 p.m. Tuesday, the Globe filed this story to its website. An excerpt:
Shareholder discontent is said to be behind the changes as the controlling families at the newspaper company grow increasingly unhappy with its deteriorating financial performance.
Torstar will report its third-quarter earnings in two weeks. In August, the company reported a 29-per-cent drop in profit.
Chief executive officer Rob Prichard said the company is trying to reduce costs at a time when Torstar shares have hit their lowest point in nearly five years.
“Torstar continues to take every available step to improve the performance of the business,” Mr. Prichard said. “We are acting like all other companies in our industry that make changes in response to industry conditions.”
The company's debt was downgraded by Moody's Investors Service Inc. Tuesday to low investment-grade status, and the bond rating agency said it was dropping coverage of Torstar.
That development came several weeks after a similar downgrade from Dominion Bond Rating Service Ltd., which said it is concerned by the amount of debt Torstar has added to its books by buying a 20-per-cent stake in Bell Globemedia Inc.
Disclosure: I work for CTV.ca News, which is ultimately owned by Bell Globemedia Inc.
Eric Reguly, a business columnist for the Globe, opined on Tuesday that Rob Prichard, CEO of TorStar Corp., could be next. An excerpt (sorry, behind a firewall):
If the rumours are correct, he is at war with some or all of the five families that control TorStar through multiple-share votes. They fear Torstar properties, notably the Star, are shedding value at an alarming rate. Mostly, they fear Torstar's dividend stream, the primary source of their income, and the income of their children and grandchildren, is at risk. Unless the dividend is secure, they will become fall media moguls.