The Globe and Mail's Lawrence Martin tries to parse what the potential sale of CanWest's National Post title could mean to the political landscape.

Here's a post based on the original Globe and Mail story: Asper considers taking CanWest private

Liberal Senator Jerry Grafstein is reportedly leading a group that would like to purchase the neo-con soapbox founded by convicted felon Conrad Black. There are guesses the perennial money-loser could be had for $30 million.

Mr. Grafstein, a former communications lawyer and a founder of Toronto's Citytv, isn't divulging any details of his negotiations. He spoke in an interview of his experience in putting together media deals and of his dismay at how much of the business, in the 24/7 news cycle, has descended into infotainment and how it has to change. While some see Mr. Grafstein as more of a conservative-oriented liberal in that, like the Aspers, he is heavily pro-American and pro-Israel, he was quick to rebut that, saying he was a bona fide liberal democrat, or "Louis St. Laurent Liberal," the suggestion being the Post would have a different look if he became a majority owner.

His bid would appear to be a long shot. A more likely scenario would be for the Aspers, if they do sell, to find a more conservative-friendly buyer. That said, no one expected the moderate Southam family to sell their newspapers to Mr. Black in the mid-1990s. As in many other businesses, in this one, money talks.

Here's the beef:

Although it would be a daunting task, a new proprietor could conceivably retool the Post to make it more viable in today's difficult newspaper market. The Post's Texas-styled ideology has been a nice fit for Alberta, but it has had trouble finding a growing audience east of Moose Jaw. Its difficulties were compounded by its inability to keep star performers such as Mark Steyn, Andrew Coyne, Christie Blatchford and Paul Wells.

For the Liberals, the sale or death of the Post, which is also possible, would have the result of saving them untold millions in adverse publicity. They have seen their media clout dwindle over time with the creation of the Sun chain, the sale of Southam, the birth of the Post and an ideological makeover at Maclean's.

For years, there have been predictions of the National Post's demise or sale. The rumours never panned out - and the same could be the case on this occasion. But if the Post does go, which could in turn see other CanWest titles follow, it would substantially alter the face of journalism in the country.

In an Aug. 3 posting (seen first at j-source), Maclean's Paul Wells noted that virtually all American newspaper companies are in trouble with respects to their stock value (see this Aug. 4, 2008 post - What if there were a fire sale on U.S. newspapers and no one bought them?)

True, but irrelevant. The Aspers bought Southam and the N-P from Conrad Black in 2000 and paid a premium. Those were the days, when convergence was the craze and heavy, heavy leverage was the way the smart people did business.

And who could have possibly foreseen how the Internet would change things for the newspaper industry?

Be that as it may, here's Wells, an original N-P staffer, on the N-P aspect:

Anyway, let’s assume there is fire where the Globe team spotted smoke, and the Aspers are looking to get rid of the Post. It would indeed rid CanWest of some losses, though barely a fraction of what’s needed to rescue the company. But it’s hardly clear how the surgery would work. The Post comes attached to a country-wide (well, Montreal on westward) chain of newspapers, and it has announced a divorce from the Canadian Press news-gathering collective. Neither the Post nor other member papers have autonomous reporting staff in Ottawa any more; a new Post buyer would basically have to staff Ottawa up from zero, or allow CanWest News Service to make most staffing and coverage decisions for the paper, which calls into question the logic of a purchase, if there ever was any such logic.

As for potential buyers, Grafstein’s name makes some sense, both because he was an early driver behind CityTV and because this isn’t a new rumour: our friend Antonia Zerbisias reported on it three years ago, linking Grafstein to Gerry Schwartz and Ray Heard. I’ll leave it to readers to judge whether those names suggest the level of wit and imagination a struggling newspaper needs.

The Post was launched with a mandate to create buzz and attention, and worry about the bottom line later. When later came, Black had already sold the paper, and the new owners blew a huge chunk of our hard-earned goodwill by cutting nearly a third of the paper’s daily pages. They were astonished when circulation, which had pulled to within shooting distance of the Globe’s, collapsed. It has never really recovered, even though a skeleton editorial staff now puts out close to the previous number of pages.

The Post’s arts pages still easily beat the Globe’s on most days. There is often strong reporting throughout the paper. The editors have decided to own the political right and to forfeit the rest of the spectrum to competitors. But frankly the paper’s strengths and weaknesses never had as much to do with political orientation as its fiercest critics and defenders like to believe. In an ordinary market, it would be possible for the Post to struggle ahead of its current position with a small number of fairly low-cost changes. In the current market, it’s less obvious how even that modest fight-back could be accomplished.