Torstar Corp. to buy political news outlet iPolitics

Torstar Corp., publisher of the Toronto Star, says it has agreed to buy Ottawa-based digital media service iPolitics Inc. to help expand its political coverage for print and digital audiences.

Following the expected closing of the transaction on Oct. 1, Torstar daily newspapers and websites across the country will soon begin publishing articles from iPolitics, a non-partisan digital service that covers federal and provincial politics with a focus on policy development.

Torstar in a statement Thursday said the Toronto Star and iPolitics will retain separate news bureaus in Ottawa, headed respectively by a separate bureau chief and a separate editor.

Launched in 2010 by founder and editor James Baxter, iPolitics provides its subscribers with daily political news and industry briefs, a quarterly magazine, podcasts and specialized parliamentary monitoring services.

Torstar publishes several daily newspapers in Ontario, Englishlanguage StarMetro newspapers and more than 80 weekly community papers in the province.

As well, Torstar operates QP Briefing, a subscription-based digital and mobile news source covering political and legislative news at the Ontario provincial level. Its digital properties also include thestar.com, while Torstar holds a majority interest in digital media company VerticalScope along with minority interests in a number of other companies.

“We are pleased to announce a transaction to acquire iPolitics, which has a proven record of providing extensive online coverage of federal and provincial politics and government policies across Canada,” said John Boynton, president and CEO of Torstar and Toronto Star publisher.

He called the purchase an important step in the company’s transformation in an increasingly digital and mobile information world. Financial terms of the purchase which is being conducted through one of Torstar’s subsidiaries were not immediately provided.