I would guess that the last thing any media company would want is unsolicited advice from Conrad Black (aka Baron Black of Crossharbour).
But the irrepressible Black has just scolded one of Canada’s largest media groups, Postmedia Network Corporation, for reporting another quarter of steep losses.
The Globe & Mail reports that Black interrupted a conference call to analysts to tell Postmedia’s executives that some of their papers “have deteriorated a long way from what I remember. Some of it you can’t avoid. Some of it you can. But please build the quality”.
He added: “Otherwise, you’re going to retreat right into your own end zone, if you’ll pardon the sports metaphor”.
Black, former proprietor of some of Postmedia’s titles is now a shareholder and also writes a column for the group’s flagship title, the National Post.
According to an account of the call in Postmedia’s Financial Post, Black “made a surprise appearance to raise his concerns about the quality of Postmedia’s papers and to voice his misgivings about the performance of the company’s shares”.
At one point Black was quoted as saying: “The number of shares outstanding increased by seven and now we have an illiquid stock — it practically does not trade”.
But he did say he had a “high regard” for Postmedia’s CEO, Paul Godfrey, and his fellow executives. It prompted Godfrey to respond by suggesting that new and upcoming Postmedia strategies should make Black a “much happier shareholder in the future”.
Godfrey told Black: “Now I understand that by going on this call you want others to know about that… You have never been a shrinking flower your whole life, and I wouldn’t expect you to be one now.
“The fact is, you and I are aligned on the end goal here. What we may not be aligned on is how we get there”.
Although Postmedia’s revenue rose 20% in the three-month period ending 31 May to $205.1m compared with $171m in the same quarter a year ago, those figures included the substantial increase stemming from its acquisition of 175 Sun Media newspapers and digital assets from Quebecor in April.
Excluding the impact of the Sun acquisition, revenue fell by $23.1m to $147.9m due to falls in both advertising and sales revenue.
And operating losses amounted to $149.8m compared to $5.6m in the same period the year before.
Black, the former owner of the Telegraph group in Britain, was convicted in the US in 2007 of three counts of fraud and of obstructing justice and sentenced to six-and- a-half years in prison.
In 2011, two of the charges were overturned on appeal and his sentence was reduced to 42 months. He was released from jail in May 2012.
Sources: Globe & Mail/Financial Post
