First of all, I sort of cross myself every time I go by that building.
How? The companies were emerging from bankruptcy under Canwest. That was how Postmedia was initially set up. The ownership structure has changed over the years. I suppose it happened for the same reason that subsidies became popular. It's because the companies were too big to fail. Politicians don't like massive failures on their watch, so you tried to get the best deal you could, even if it wasn't a great deal.
In terms of the ownership set-up, when you have a hedge fund, you have an entirely different financial model. You need to feed the beast. That becomes a priority. There isn't time for long-term thinking. There isn't time for long-term structures and that sort of stuff. You need to make those payments, and you need to make them on time. That becomes the priority. That can be a big issue.
If you have a proprietorship ownership, like The Globe and Mail, you can appeal to the owner to be patient, hang on, not lay people off and try to invest in journalism. I think that approach has generally worked pretty well for The Globe and Mail.
Essentially, if you have a free press, it means you can be whatever you want. The only time it makes a difference is now that the government has gotten into funding, government and people such as yourself, Mr. Waugh, have to look at it and ask what is being funded here. Is it a hedge fund or news?
That is why I think that one of the ways out of that is to get around to funding the consumer. Let them choose what they want to read or not read. Subsidize that through tax credits to them. Then the market can actually work, and you get some sort of feedback. You get a flow-through impact to successful operators.
In my 30 years in the business, who owns what and how was never the government's business.