Post Media's Offer to Buy Sun Media Would Make It Dominant in Canadian Newspaper

       Toronto- Postmedia Network says it will buy Quebecor Inc's Sun Media newspaper for $282 million, the deal would give a single publisher control of most of the major English-language dailies in Canada.  If the acquisition goes through it would make Postmedia the owner of competing major local dailies in cities such as Ottawa, Edmonton, and Calgary.  The deal would bring in approximately 175 newspapers and publications, including the Sun's flagship assets, the Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Calgary Sun newspapers - as well as the London (Ontario) Free Press, into the Postmedia conglomerate.  Postmedia says the deal will position it to better compete with foreign-based offerings.  The Competition Bureau downplayed its role so far as acting as a guardian of the diversity of voices in the media.  "While media ownership concentration can raise other publicised interest concerns, under the Competition Act, the bureau's mandate is  to review mergers exclusively to determine whether they are likely to result in a substantial lessening or prevention of competition," the agency said. 
          Postmedia said it plans to operate the major Sun dailies and their websites side-by-side with its existing publications, in markets with multiple brands, as it has in Vancouver for more than 30 years, with the Province and The Vancouver Sun.  Postmedia competes against Torstar Corp., publisher of The Toronto Star.   It also competes against The Globe,  and Mail a national daily, majority-owned by the Thomson family.  See also, http://www.cnn.com.