Postmedia closes $16.1-million deal to acquire Brunswick News from Irving family

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Postmedia Network Canada Corp. has closed its $16.1-million deal to acquire media publisher Brunswick News Inc. from conglomerate J.D. Irving Ltd., a move that will expand Postmedia’s reach to the Atlantic region and help grow its parcel delivery service, the company said Friday.

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The acquisition, first announced on Feb. 17, brings 400 BNI employees and the company’s full roster of New Brunswick weekly and daily newspapers — among them the Telegraph-Journal, Times Globe, Times & Transcript, Miramichi Leader and The Daily Gleaner — under the umbrella of the Toronto-based publisher, which owns more than 120 media outlets across Canada, including the Financial Post.

Postmedia will also acquire distribution software that powers Brunswick News’s parcel delivery business, among other digital properties.

“Never has the desire and the need for quality information been greater,” Andrew MacLeod, president and CEO of Postmedia, said in an interview. “From a Canadian context, I think that consolidation, scale and efficiency are going to be necessary prerequisites for the transformation and future success of our industry. And I think that Brunswick, the acquisition of it, is one example of that.”

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Postmedia paid $7.5 million in cash and $8.6 million in variable voting shares at an implied price of $2.10 per share to J.D. Irving Ltd. for Brunswick News. The deal marks an exit from the media business by J.D. Irving, according to the Feb. 17 press release. The conglomerate, controlled for generations by the Irving family, is the sister organization to Irving Oil Ltd. and owns businesses in sectors such as forestry, agriculture and shipbuilding

“Postmedia is well positioned to make the transition to the digital world of providing New Brunswickers with a reliable source of local, regional and national news as well as access to much broader news coverage,” Jim Irving, co-CEO of J.D. Irving, said in a statement last month.

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Postmedia recently ventured into the parcel delivery space, launching a service last summer to fill gaps in middle- and last-mile delivery for packages to homes in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. The new acquisition will extend Postmedia’s coverage to Atlantic Canada, MacLeod said.

“Parcel is a very interesting tangent for us because we already have an existing distribution network to deliver our newspapers and flyers around the country,” he said. “Layering on another business that’s accretive to a network we’ve already built and are paying for, well, that just makes common sense. We think it’s an opportunity to grow out a new line of business and an opportunity to grow revenues.”

Postmedia posted a net loss of $4.4 million in its fiscal first quarter, which ended Nov. 30, 2021.

Revenue for the quarter was up one per cent to $118.1 million, driven in large part by gains in digital advertising.