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In 2014 when Postmedia acquired Quebecors Sun Media newspaper and online assets there was a sense that the recent history of newspapers was repeating itself not as comedy or tragedy but as eulogy. Crash to Paywall shows that while the newspaper business was weakened by decreases in advertising revenues and circulation much of its problems stem from self-inicted damage and business practices dating back to the 1970s. Brian Gorman explores the Canadian newspa- per industry crisis and the relationship between the news media and the public. He challenges both the popular mantra that a perfect storm of unfore- seen circumstances blindsided a declining industry and the narrative that readers were abandoning newspapers causing advertisers to turn away from dying media. Gorman argues that observers had been warning for decades that the business was creating its own problems by acquiring ever-larger debt and shareholder obligations while steadily cutting back on journalists resources. Finally by providing journalism for free online newspaper companies devalued their most important resource and impaired their protable print products. With dozens of interviews conducted with lead- ing Canadian journalists and editors Crash to Paywall brings to light the many misconceptions generalizations omissions and highly suspect conclusions about the present state of newspapers and their future. Crash to Paywall demonstrates that consolida- tion of ownership and subsequent rationalization of operations of the newspaper industry within a handful of for-prot corporations has led to crip- pling damage within the fourth estate. It makes a strong case for the need for federal regulation of the industry in this regard and will be inuential in policy-making in the coming years. Wade Rowland author of Saving the CBC Balancing Prot and Public Service Brian Gorman is assistant professor of communi- cation studies at MacEwan University. He has more than three decades of experience in the Canadian newspaper industry. 3 M Q U P F A L L 2 0 1 5 C O M M U N I C AT I O N S T U D I E S B U S I N E S S Crash to Paywall Canadian Newspapers and the Great Disruption brian gorman A detailed critique of the crisis in the Canadian newspaper industry. S P E C I F I C AT I O N S October 2015 978-0-7735-4592-2 32.95A CDN 32.95A US 22.99 paper 978-0-7735-4591-5 110.00S CDN 110.00S US 76.00 cloth 6 x 9 336pp Ebook available