Hollinger sells most remaining Canadian assets

Hollinger International Inc. has sold most of its remaining Canadian assets, including the newspaper where company founder Conrad Black started his career as a media magnate.

The assets include 87 per cent of the units in Hollinger Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership, which holds many smaller papers, including the Sherbrooke Record.

Black, who is now facing accusations related to his management of Hollinger and has been forced from the company, got his start as a newspaper chain owner and builder at the Record in 1969, with Peter White and David Radler.

• FROM DEC. 16, 2005: Trial of Conrad Black set for March 2007

Hollinger said late Wednesday that an arm of Glacier Ventures International Corp. will pay $121.7 million for the assets.

The sale enables Hollinger to focus on its Chicago papers, including the daily Sun-Times, Gordon Paris, chairman and CEO, said in a statement.

The assets sold include a group of British Columbia newspapers and magazines, trade magazines and electronic websites and the Record and Brome County News in eastern Quebec.

The B.C. papers include dailies in Nelson, Cranbrook, Kimberley, Kamloops and Prince George and many other publications.

Hollinger sold a 70-per-cent interest in Great West Newspaper Group Ltd. and its 50-per-cent interest in Fundata Canada Inc. to Jamison Newspapers Inc. and Glacier for $47.1 million in December.

Closing is expected before the end of February.