Enabling Postmedia: Economists as the “Rock Stars” of Canadian Competition Law

<jats:p> Background Canada is suffering a crisis in local news largely attributable to regulatory failure. Its largest newspaper chain, Postmedia Network, took over the second-largest chain in late 2014, and in early 2016 it merged the newsrooms at its duplicate dailies in four of Canada’s six largest cities. Parliamentary hearings on local media ensued, and a mid-2017 report recommended, among other things, changes to the Competition Actto more effectively deal with news media mergers and takeovers. </jats:p><jats:p> Analysis The Competition Bureau is dominated by economists who may lack sufficient grounding in media issues to effectively deal with mergers and takeovers in news industries. </jats:p><jats:p> Conclusion and implications Reform of the country’s Competition Act, which has been called for by successive federal media inquiries, is more urgently required than ever. </jats:p>