Paul Rivett, left, and Jordan Bitove, right, co-proprietors of the Toronto Star, meet on stage after a panel discussion on journalism and its correlation to democracy in Canada, in Toronto, on Nov. 17.Cole Burston/The Globe and Mail
Toronto Star co-proprietor Jordan Bitove says it’s too late to resolve his differences with business partner Paul Rivett, as the two engage in arbitration to determine who will ultimately own the newspaper, along with other assets.
“We have a different approach to what we think is important, and so the best thing is a quick divorce,” Mr. Bitove said. “Some marriages don’t work, and that’s really what’s happened between Paul and I.”
He made the remarks during a panel discussion at the Isabel Bader Theatre in Toronto Thursday evening, after the screening of a documentary about the Toronto Star. The film, Viral News, examines the newspaper’s coverage of the pandemic and features interviews with both owners before their public falling out.
The previous day, the duo began arbitration to split up the assets of NordStar Capital, a company in which they are equal partners, after Mr. Rivett went to court in September to request the firm be dissolved and its holdings split up between them. NordStar also owns community news publisher Metroland Media Group and a substantial stake in VerticalScope Holdings Inc., a digital media company that operates web forums. In his court application, Mr. Rivett said he and Mr. Bitove were deadlocked over the direction of the company and could no longer work together.
On Thursday, Mr. Rivett was seated at the opposite end of the panel from his partner. “It’s unfortunate,” he said of the situation. “We’re just different business people.” He and Mr. Bitove only started working together in 2020, when they teamed up to purchase the parent corporation of the Toronto Star for $60-million.
The panel discussion, moderated by TVO’s Steve Paikin, was officially focused on the erudite question of whether democracy can survive amid the collapse of news media, an industry facing immense financial challenges. Mr. Rivett made those realities clear in the documentary when he references a cash burn rate of about $1-million per week. (He later clarified he was referring to the Toronto Star’s parent company, not the newspaper specifically.)
Finances are seemingly central to the rift between the two owners. According to the court application, Mr. Rivett and Mr. Bitove agreed on a number of measures to reduce costs at NordStar’s newspaper assets. But Mr. Bitove, who also serves as publisher of the Toronto Star, later refused to carry out the cost-cutting plans at the newspaper, the application states.
After The Globe and Mail reported on the court filing, Mr. Bitove responded with a statement through communications firm Navigator Ltd., saying he believed the best way to ensure the financial health of news media is to invest in it, while implying his partner’s preference is to “cut costs to the bone.”
In a media scrum with reporters after the event Thursday, Mr. Rivett said that characterization of him was “unfortunate,” but he did not go into detail about his plans for the Toronto Star should he end up with it. “The plan next year is to actually make a dollar,” he said. “It is an institution that has a very important role in society, but we’re not talking about it being a charitable institution.”
He also said he could not discuss the details of the arbitration process but is hopeful a resolution will be reached soon. “We’re closer to the end than the beginning,” he said.
Mr. Bitove did not attend the scrum.