The Colonist newspaper, a forebearer of the Victoria Times-Colonist, came into being on Dec. 11, 1858. One can now examine every issue published from that date to June 30, 1910 online at http://www.britishcolonist.ca.

Victoria journalist Tom Hawthorn rhapsodizes about browsing through that paper's inaugural issue.

I suspect we might see something like this in the forthcoming book by the recently paroled newspaper operator David Radler:

• Buy small newspapers
• If you have three people in their newsroom, make two of them sell ads
• Obsessively micromanage costs
• Fine people for "provoking the publisher"
• When you do buy bigger newspapers, count the desks and remove one-quarter of them (along with the people who occupy them, of course). You won't miss a beat
• In a vainglorious frenzy, spend $200 million to create a brand-new newspaper and conservative bully pulpit from scratch so it can be in fourth place in the country's biggest market
• Non-compete fees are like free money

BlogTO had a post today on the impending demise of Pages bookstore at Queen St. W. and John.

The problem facing the bookstore is essentially this:

• The landlord wants to double the rent when the lease expires at the end of February
• Pages founder Marc Glassman has been looking for a new location for two years, to no avail
• "From Leslieville to Parkdale to St. Clair West, he's encountered landlords that he believes are asking way too much, and doesn't feel that even a reduced rent in any of those locations would necessarily make the business sustainable given their lower retail foot traffic compared to Queen and John"

If you can't stay and you can't move, you're in a bit of a conundrum.