Torstar Corp. reports a third-quarter loss at September 30, 2013 of $70.8-million. That is a decline in revenue of 7.7% — down to $328 million from last year’s $355 million. The losses occurred in both the media division and the publishing division, Harlequin. The romance novel arm of Torstar was a a gold mine for the firm for decades. The digital reader revolution has had a killing effect on Harlequin sales, as it has had with other publishers. The newspaper business continues to suffer from diminishing advertising sales. The Toronto Star’s publisher, John Cruickshank said it is too soon to gauge the success of the online paywall recently placed on the Star’s website. He said the revenues gained from this move were about what had been expected but he did not speak on how the decision had impacted the number of so-called unique visitors to the site, the measure used to establish online advertising rates.
