The Royal Commission on Newspapers, popularly known as the Kent Commission, was a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 Royal Commission

Royal Commission

In Commonwealth realms and other monarchies a Royal Commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue. They have been held in various countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia...

 chaired by Tom Kent

Thomas Worrall Kent

Thomas Worrall Kent, was a Canadian economist, journalist, editor, public servant, and industrialist....

. It was created in 1980 in response to growing concerns over concentration of media ownership

Concentration of media ownership

Concentration of media ownership refers to a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media...

 in Canada. The Commission's final report was delivered in 1981.

Much of the impetus for the creation of the commission was the virtually simultaneous closure, on August 26-27, 1980, of two major daily newspapers: the Ottawa Journal

Ottawa Journal

The Ottawa Journal was a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Ottawa, Ontario from 1885 to 1980.It was founded in 1885 by A. Woodburn as the Ottawa Evening Journal. Its first editor was John Wesley Dafoe who came from the Winnipeg Free Press. In 1886, it was bought by Philip Dansken Ross.The...

(owned by the Thomson Corporation

Thomson Corporation

The Thomson Corporation was one of the world's largest information companies.Thomson was active in financial services, healthcare sectors, law, science & technology research, and tax & accounting sectors...

) and the Winnipeg Tribune

Winnipeg Tribune

The Winnipeg Tribune was a metropolitan daily newspaper serving Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada from January 28, 1890 to August 27, 1980. The paper was founded by R.L. Richardson and D.L. McIntyre who acquired the press and premises of the old Winnipeg Sun newspaper. It was often viewed as a liberal...

(owned by Southam Inc.). These closures gave each chain a monopoly in the two markets, Southam with the Ottawa Citizen

Ottawa Citizen

The Ottawa Citizen is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Canada. According to the Canadian Newspaper Association, the paper had a 2008 weekly circulation of 900,197.- History :...

and Thomson with the Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press

The Winnipeg Free Press is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Founded in 1872, as the Manitoba Free Press, it is the oldest newspaper in western Canada. It is the newspaper with the largest readership in the province....

. The resulting allegations of collusion prompted the Canadian government to launch the Kent Commission.

External links

• http://archives.cbc.ca/programs/264-4835/page/1/Front Page Challenge
  Front Page Challenge
  Front Page Challenge was a long-running Canadian panel game about current events and history. Created by comedy writer/performer John Aylesworth and produced and aired by CBC Television, the series ran from 1957 to 1995.-Synopsis:The series featured notable journalists attempting to guess the...
  
  interview with Tom Kent ]