LONG LIVE THE NATIONAL POST - THANK YOU LORD BLACK
<<4 years on, a changed landscape
Post has improved Canadian papers, public policy
Kenneth Whyte, Editor-in-Chief
National Post
Monday, October 28, 2002
Early in 1998, in a telephone conversation a few hours before it was officially announced that a new national newspaper would be launched in Canada, Conrad Black reviewed once again the thinking behind the project and reached the following conclusion:
"Who knows how it will end up? We may fall flat on our faces. We may just surprise everyone and be a howling success. But, whatever happens, it will be an honourable thing to have done."
To be honest, there have been particular moments -- usually involving quarterly statements or layoffs forced by economic necessity -- when the whole project has seemed not so much honourable as preposterous. The fight has been longer and more difficult than any of us anticipated. But like any great venture, this one must be judged not by a single point in time but over the long haul, and from the vantage point today of our fourth anniversary, I think all involved would agree that we are blessed to be a part of it.
Young as it is, the National Post has to be accounted a howling success, even if the howling comes mostly from our competitors. It is Canada's third-largest English-language newspaper, with an intelligent and passionate readership of some two million people a week; it has gained a stubborn foothold for the Southam news company in the crowded Toronto market, and outside of Toronto it is Canada's preferred national newspaper (proving our contention that so far as most Canadians were concerned, we had no truly national newspaper before the Post's launch).
The Post has been credited, even by other newspapers, with bringing to Canada a new style of journalism, one both intelligent and entertaining. Through our newspaper and magazine journalism and our fabulous design, we have won more national and international awards than any other Canadian paper over the last four years.
It has always been part of the Post's mission to challenge a certain complacency in Canadian public affairs by introducing fresh perspectives and ambitious ideas to the national conversation. Our leadership in this regard has never been more apparent than last week when the Chrétien government finally announced it would bring in an ethics commissioner reporting directly to Parliament, and Paul Martin introduced a proposed package of Parliamentary reforms broadly in line with what we've been urging since our inception.
The Post has also campaigned for more backbone in Canadian foreign policy; for the rescue of our underfunded and demoralized military; for less onerous personal and corporate taxes; and for measures to improve our flagging standard of living. We keep these issues alive and in the face of our governments for one overarching reason: We have high hopes and high standards for Canada; we believe Canadians deserve nothing less.
Of course, there is more to the Post than public affairs. Much of the spirit of the paper lies in its curiosity and wonder at the world around us and the way we live now. The Post has an unabashed love of a great human interest story, and it is always ready to laugh, express outrage, or otherwise wear its heart on its sleeve.
Unique among Canadian journalistic institutions, the Post can also make fun of itself. In a perverse way, one of our proudest moments was this year's celebration of our 1,000th edition: a glorious two-page spread of all our mistaken calls, fatuous opinion, and misguided enthusiasms, including 258 mentions of Anna Kournikova, despite the fact she has never won a pro singles tennis tournament.
This anniversary, like any other, is an opportunity for gratitude. We would like to thank the many passionate readers who cheer, berate, challenge and stick with us every day. Also our growing collection of advertisers: We appreciate your commitment and we trust that the Post will continue to deliver even more for you in the months and years ahead.
We are grateful to Lord Black for his original vision, investment, and leadership, and also to the Asper family, which has not merely respected the integrity of the Post but urged us to reach higher. Under CanWest management, the Post has eliminated more than three quarters of its annual losses and it now stands, with growing circulation and improving ad revenues, tantalizingly close to profitability. (It is worth noting that this has been achieved despite our major competitor, backed by the richest man in Canada and the phone company, abusing its bottom line to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in thwarted efforts to put us under.)
Above all else today, I want to pay tribute to the writers and editors of the National Post, the greatest collection of journalistic talent in the country -- men and women who despite the sometimes daunting nature of this project fear nothing more each day than producing a page that might bore or otherwise disappoint our readers.
The Post is not a newspaper anyone grew up reading. It is not anyone's hometown paper. It can't count on habit or inertia to keep it going. Moreso than any title in the country, it lives by its wits, stands on its merits and earns its readership each day. Along with their colleagues who produce, sell and manage the Post, our journalists embody that same spirit of enterprise we seek as a newspaper to promote throughout Canada. The National Post has always been their "honourable thing," and it will be for many years to come.
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