Winter's Coming

In Sask and Manitoba, winter made an appearance, some two months early.
As I'm watching the media footage of slipper roads and snow falling, I remember that during winter some of us hibernate. I do, usually with a fall stack of books.

Right now I'm working through Margaret Atwood's Year of the Flood. It's certainly a continuation of her previous work Oryx and Crake. So far I'm only about 4 chapters in, but I'll be posting a review later on.

I've been collecting stuff to read for the winter over the last few weeks. My biggest task is to work through James Joyce's Ulysses. After that I'm hoping to finally finish reading Dante's Divine Comedy.

Got any other reading suggestions? Leave them below.

CanWest's Restructuring

On Tuesday, CanWest Global attempted to find court-protection shelter for its assets. They currently own and operate the Global Television network as well as stakes in specialty channels and 11 daily papers across the country.

In the past few years, they've bought up other struggling networks (such as CH in Hamilton, Vancouver Island and Montreal). CanWest also bought Southam newspaper organization.

And now it's all failing apart. Perhaps their eager expansion has cost them the entire organization.
For example, in Vancouver, both daily papers are owned by CanWest (the Province and the Sun). Is this not excessive?

In a climate where all media outlets are struggling, why force the issue and attempt to expand this much?

Over the last year, each quarter creditors were told to be patient and wait. I guess the sky has finally fallen for them.

Many watching this story have discussed on how this case is remarkably similar to the Nortel breakup.

For more information, visit any media website for a variety of commentary.

For example:
The Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/how-will-canwests-restructuring-affect-canadas-media-landscape/article1315642/
CBC.ca: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2009/10/06/canwest-bankruptcy.html
National Post: http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=2073560

Overall, be aware of where your news sources are coming from and who owns and operates them. This is going to be an interesting case to follow as CanWest tries to figure out what to save and what to sell before they're forced to.

First Post!

Welcome.
This is the first post of my new blog.
I'm hoping to post everyday or almost everyday depending on what's going on.

The entries are going to be varied from television reviews, book reviews to commentary on current events and media coverage.

It's a little bit of everything.

Thanks!