Written by Kevan Gilbert, for no good reason.

So who else just loooves their morning celebrity gossip and condensed stolen news briefs? Apparently somebody up there thinks we do.

Ever since I began skytraining it into to downtown Van last week, I’ve noticed the regular assault of paperboys and hawkers shoving copies of Metro and 24 Hours into my reluctant hands. The apron-clad peddlers distribute these dailies with aggressive religious fervor, passionately sending up media alter calls with all the dedication of devout evangelists. Or maybe more accurately…devout Jehovah Witnesses.

I’d been thinking about the JW comparison for a few days, when TODAY, I spotted a little old lady positioned quietly behind the green Metro Man, handing out copies of “Awake!” It didn’t click until I walked past – so I doubled back through the spawning salmon school of morning commuters and took my very own copy of the J-Ho mag.

My first question when I see Metro and 24 is: WHY? I want to know who’s giving me this, and why they think I want it. With Awake!, it’s easy. The people handing them out believe wholeheartedly in the cause. And there IS a cause: spreading and encouraging belief in Jehovah. The catch isn’t hidden, it’s right there on page 4: “This magazine builds confidence in the Creator’s promise of a peaceful and secure no world that is about to replace the present wicked, lawless system of things.”

Metro and 24, however, are far more enigmatic about their existence. The publishers are a cagey bunch, hiding under countless pseudonyms in order to successfully perpetrate the front of being a friendly local daily.

Friendly local daily my yass. I’ve been maneuvering through the cobwebs of the internet today, and I’ve discovered that these ambitious rags are the offspring of an enormously inbred extended family of media despots.

24 hours a daily

Following the chain of ownership of 24 Hours leads to a massive company called Quebecor Media Inc. 

Quebecor Media. Inc is only one branch of Quebecor Inc., which also owns Quebecor World, which is “one of the world’s largest print media services companies, with plants in 17 countries in North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia.” But according to the Corprorate Citizenship write-up on their website, “We aren’t just a big media conglomerate.”

Pshaw. The Message from the President  reads like a speech from a General prepping his troops for the start of Armageddon: “Quebecor has now assembled all the pieces it needs to become a printing and communications powerhouse,” says Mr. Péladeau (or “Moniseur P,” as he was affectionately referred to back in the day).

Quebecor also owns Sun Media Corporation

According to Quebecor’s website, Sun is the largest chain of tabloids and community newspapers in Canada. The group publishes 8 metropolitan dailies, covering most of the country’s major urban markets. In addition, Sun Media Corporation publishes nine local dailies and nearly 200 weeklies, buyers’ guides and other specialty publications in communities across Canada. The combined weekly circulation of Sun Media Corporation’s newspapers is more than 12 million copies.

It is Sun Media that also publishes “24 Hours”.

The Story of Metro

Metro is a different story entirely. It just appeared in Vancouver in 2005, and now Metro hawkers are now stationed at almost every Skytrain station in the city. But don’t be fooled: Metro is by no means local.

Metro’s been pumping out the borrowed news stories since 1995. It was launched in Stockholm, and since then has grown to encompass 93 major cities in 21 countries in 18 languages across Europe, North & South America and Asia. According to its website, “Metro is the largest international newspaper in the world.” It’s not just Metro: It’s “Metro International.”

But even Metro International isn’t that simple. The ownership of Metro is convoluted and spooky. I don’t quite follow it, but there’s a company called “Modern Times Group,”  which “demerged” and created Metro International. But Metro and MTG seem to be only two of SEVEN different publicly traded company owned by a Swedish investment company called “Industriforvaltnings AB Kinnevik.”

Ah, and it gets even deeper. The Vancouver operations of Metro are joint ventures with Torstar Corporation and CanWest Global Communications Corp (each holding a 33.3% interest). Torstar, as you know, owns the Toronto Star, as well as 95 community newspapers called “Metroland,” 32 newspapers under “CityMedia Group,” and workopolis.com and toronto.com, AND Metro Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa.

And CanWest Global? Good grief, I won’t even bother listing everything owned by them. Try and wade through it all yourself. 

Don’t lose me yet. Here is a document produced by the Observatory on Media and Public Policy at McGill, which tries very hard to track the Ownership of Canadian Newspapers. 

As you can see, right now, every single newspaper in Canada is owned by either CanWest Global or Quebecor Media Inc.

So what?

Now, I don’t know much about the politics of this all. I know I should pay more attention to those stories about Conrad Black and Hollinger Inc. and monopolies and such, but I haven’t been, so my perspective, unfortunately, isn’t as informed as it could be. But from researching all this, here is what I can see: Two giant companies are aggressively seeking to get you to read exclusively their publications.

When I encountered that Jehovah’s Witness lady today, I understood her motives for handing me a copy of their free publication. Her directives are from her church, and they believe that this aggressive door-to-door evangelism is a directive straight from the Creator. I guess it make me wonder: Who are the media gods that are directing the worldwide delivery of these newspapers?

You don’t expect an unbiased opinion from a JW at your doorstep. Why would you expect one from a nameless holding group? Do we really trust two giant companies (eventually, it will just be one) to be the sole dispensers of information regarding the events of the world  - a world we rarely see with our own eyes? 

After all this, I guess I can only say one thing: be careful of what you believe.