Kings of Convergence: The Fight for Control of Canada's Media

Meet the people who decide what you watch, read, and click. Acclaimed business reporter Gordon Pitts delivers remarkably revealing and provocative profiles of Canada’s media moguls. The inside story of the “kings of convergence:” Jean Monty, Ted Rogers, Izzy Asper, JR Shaw, and Pierre Karl Peladeau Around the globe, multimedia empires like AOL Time Warner have been absorbing companies and consolidating power. In Canada, five media corporations now dominate everything from newspapers to cable to Internet access: BCE, Rogers, CanWest, Shaw Communications, and Quebecor. This is the inside story of the men at the helm of these five corporations -- Jean Monty, Ted Rogers, Izzy Asper, JR Shaw, and Pierre Karl Peladeau -- the “kings of convergence” who had the vision to develop these Canadian media empires and who continue to direct the strategies that keep them on top. Based on in-depth interviews with all the major players, Kings of Convergence tells the dramatic story of national and global business jockeying, and of the powerful personal rivalries that are driving this change. It is also a story of huge financial gambles taken by these media and communications moguls, who are often acting on instinct and without proven business models. It raises concerns about the increasing control of information placed in the hands of fewer and fewer individuals, and the impact on the independence of the press. Kings of Convergence speculates on the future of these multimedia empires as globalization shatters national boundaries.