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Focuses on Conrad Black and his company Hollinger. Why Canadians are upset with his takeover of Southam Inc.; The number of newspapers which Black owns in Canada and throughout the world; The role of David Radler in the takeovers; Controversy over the way employees are hired and fired; Concerns over media concentration and Black's editorial influence. INSET: `No one was fired!' (Radler talks about his tactics).

Profiles Canadian media baron Conrad Black and discusses his foray into the complicated and combative world of London newspaper corporations. Comparisons of Black to fellow media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. INSETS: Tale of the tapes: Black versus Murdoch;The root of an empire, by Patricia Chisholm.

This article reports on a series of lawsuits filed against Hollinger International Inc.. Including the lawsuit before Delaware's Chancery Court last week, there are at least 10 legal actions swirling around Hollinger International Inc. and its former CEO, Conrad Black. With all the complicated claims and counterclaims, it's easy to lose sight of what is at the heart of the controversy: the 1998-2001 sales of most of Hollinger's newspapers for roughly US $3 billion. The complaints, including one by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, make serious allegations about how the sales were negotiated and structured, how they were approved (or not approved), and who benefited. Conrad Black denies any wrongdoing, and claims any payments he received from non-compete agreements had previously been approved.

Focuses on whether Conrad Black will start his own newspaper in Toronto, Ontario. Comparison of Black to William F. Buckley Jr.; The two problems that Black has; The author's belief that Black will not start a new national newspaper.

Discusses plans of newspaper magnate Conrad Black to reorganize his forces in the United States. His intent to collect British, Canadian and Australian holdings under Hollinger Inc.'s principal US subsidiary; Brief information of plan involving Hollinger's American Publishing Co.

This article presents an adapted excerpt from the book "Here Be Dragons," by Peter C. Newman about Conrad Black. This adapted excerpt describes Newman s three-decade-long relationship with Lord Black of Crossharbour, who excelled at being all three. That was the day the music died for Canada's poster boy tycoon, and some of it died within me, because I was there at the creation. We first met when he returned to Toronto from Quebec in 1974. Black was 29, had earned a law degree from Laval, had written an unusually perceptive master's thesis on Quebec premier Maurice Duplessis and, with his partners Peter White and David Radler, had purchased the Sherbrooke Record for $20,000. Black's downfall dates back to the fall of 1993, when he engaged in a feud with Rupert Murdoch, the pragmatic proprietor of the Times, who had reduced his paper's cover price to challenge the Telegraph's then heady circulation lead. Conrad's responsibility for what appeared to be a gross misappropriation of corporate funds remained to be proven.

Focuses on the decision of Conrad Black, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Hollinger International Inc., to sell a large number of newspapers and serial publications owned by his company. Speculation as to which papers are for sale; Effect of the decision on the company's stock price; Canadian companies that are expected to purchase local papers; Outlook for the Internet strategy of Hollinger.

This article focuses on David Radler and the illegal activities he was involved in during his partnership with Conrad Black. When David Radler became Canada's most treacherous informer last week, it was a stunning repudiation of his 36-year partnership with Conrad Black, the portentous power broker who turned himself into a weapon of mass self-destruction. Unlike Black, who courted the spotlight, Radler refused most interviews, pretending he was a simple man of God on a private mission with no name. I was one of the exceptions. He would often take me to lunch. He joined Black in buying the Sherbrooke Daily Record, where he is remembered mainly for the day an employee came into his office with a list of grievances. Instead of listening to him, Radler had two cents taken off his next paycheque for wasting a sheet of paper. He went on to create the three-man news department for his and Conrad's chain of 21 daily Sterling papers that limited editorial staff to an editor, sports writer and general reporter, with the balance of copy provided by news wires. When I asked Radler how he picked the newspapers he chose to buy, his explanation was simple. David Radler was lively and interesting, but his notion that cost-cutting constitutes great publishing is not going to win him many mourners at the tail end of his career. Now that he has agreed to plead guilty to the initial indictments aimed at the companies whose chief strategic animator he became, I hope that investigators take note of the stunning accusation made by a former publisher of the Jerusalem Post. Radler is the toughest-minded executive I ever encountered. Only facing up to 35 years of jail time brought him to heel.

Conrad Black's critics have seldom had fun or done big things -- while he can lay claim to both. Conrad Black back in the news, playing new variations on favourite themes: history, the English language, and unorthodox business practice. Lord Black of Crossharbour is in a financial mess these days. The vultures in competing British papers are circling around the still-warm form of Hollinger International, the holding company that owns London's Daily Telegraph and used to own most of Canada's larger daily newspapers. Hollinger may have to sell assets to meet its debt payments. Yet even as he tends to business, the boss devotes at least as much energy to his other passions. This has left a few skeptics wondering whether it was a good idea to use $12 million of Hollinger money to buy Franklin Delano Roosevelt's papers so Black could finish his Roosevelt biography.

Presents letters to the editor commenting on articles previously published in this magazine. Responses to the articles "Teen trouble," "Paper trail," "Gut-check time," "Why Quebecers feel especially betrayed," "They're so sorry [not]" and "Smooth reign," from the March 1, 2004 issue; Responses to the articles "The Lowdown on the low-carb diet wars" and "If at first you don't …," from the February 23, 2004 issue; Responses to "In the country of love," from the February 16, 2004 issue, Response to "Arms and the child," from the February 9, 2004 issue.

The article reports on Conrad Black and his financial difficulties. Last week, he continued his hunt for the kind of major financial infusion that would allow him to maintain control of his crumbling media empire. It remains an open question whether he can survive the onslaught of his minority shareholders, who are fed up watching him collect massive compensation while his holding company, Hollinger Inc., flounders. At the same time, Black's once powerful media dominion has, in less than a decade, been reduced from 500 papers with a daily circulation of 4.7 million, third largest in the world, to only three major publications: London's Daily Telegraph, the Chicago Sun-Times and the Jerusalem Post, with a combined circulation of 1.7 million. One of the most damning arguments by Black critics has been his Himalayan pay packets. Because his income flows through many layers of holding and private companies, it's not clear exactly how much cash goes into his pocket. Black owns two-thirds of his private company, Ravelston Corp. Ltd., which in turn controls three-quarters of Hollinger Inc., the Canadian public company that in turn owns one-third of the equity and three-quarters of the voting control of Hollinger International Inc., which actually runs the newspapers. According to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing by aggrieved minority Hollinger International shareholder Tweedy Browne Co. LLC, payments to Ravelston and its affiliates totalled US$202.7 million between 1995 and 2002.

In the age of convergence, where fearsome local editors have taken a back seat to faceless corporate managers from out of town, the romantic good old days at the [Montreal Gazette[ are slipping fast into nostalgia, alongside the three-martini lunch, felt fedoras thrown on the ice at the Forum, and the let-them-deny-it approach to sensational copy. The paper became part of a megadeal that saw the Asper family's CanWest Global Communications Corp. of Winnipeg gain control of the Southam newspapers from media mogul Conrad Black. The Gazette was a building block of the fabled Montreal Anglo establishment which controlled much of Canada's economy, to say nothing of national politics, through most of the last two centuries. Journalists complain about the Aspers' bottom-line-driven style of management. The Gazette has been a special place since its inception. One of its backers was an American, Benjamin Franklin, and its first publisher was a Voltairean freethinker from France.

Describes Conrad Black's takeover of Saskatchewan's two newspapers, the `Regina Leader-Post' and the `Saskatoon Star Phoenix,' and 12 smaller Prairie papers. Black's Hollinger Inc. of Vancouver owning 162 dailies and other papers in Canada, the United States, Britain, Australia, and Israel.

Presents a letter written by the author to Conrad Black, Chairman of Southam Inc. on the company's plans to produce a national newspaper in Canada. Comments quoted from vice-president of editorial at Southam, Gord Fisher; Papers and circulations Southam already has; Comments from advertiser Ann Boden of McKim Media Group; Cautions from the author for Black.

States Conrad Black, Canada's erudite and archly conservative media baron, has agents meeting with `New York Daily News' unions and creditors to discuss details of a rescue bid for the bankrupt 73-year-old newspaper. Black already owns 102 daily and 199 weekly papers. His flagship London `Daily Telegraph'; History of the `Daily News'; Effects of the death of Robert Maxwell; Labor concessions sought; Black's former dealings with combative unions; Other possible buyers.

This article reports on the court case of Conrad Black, former CEO of publishing company, Hollinger International, Inc. In the wake of his ouster last November as CEO, Black secretly agreed to sell International's parent company, Hollinger Inc. The deal, for $605.5 million to the U.K.'s twin Barclay brothers, would have thwarted the board's strategy to look for buyers of International's papers. So the board asked the court to block Black's deal. Other legal battles include a case that aims to force Black, Hollinger Inc. and other executives to repay US$200 million to Hollinger International. Also, Black is suing International board members, claiming he's been made a "social leper."

This article reports news briefs from the world of business. OPEC made a surprise 10-per-cent cut in oil production. The World Trade Organization rejected U.S. complaints that the Canadian Wheat Board is an unfair state monopoly. A tabloid rival and even a British porn baron have entered the fray to buy Conrad Black's main British papers, the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph. Comcast Corp., made a surprise bid to take over the struggling Walt Disney empire. Rogers Communications Inc. says it is ready to go head-to-head with Bell Canada by selling Internet-based phone service to its customers in Ontario and Eastern Canada over the next two years.

Observations on various news events in Canada are presented. With 850 wildfires in British Columbia--some caused by cigarettes--smokers are under scrutiny. Smoking bans were imposed in dry wilderness areas, including Vancouver's Stanley Park. Conrad Black enraged shareholders by spending $12 million of Hollinger money on personal papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the subject of Black's new book. Brenda Chamberlain, a Guelph, Ontario MP among Liberals, ran to the U.S. drug czar's office to complain about Canada's plan to decriminalize marijuana. A Nova Scotia sod farm was ordered to stop using human sewage sludge as fertilizer.

Reports that Edward Greenspon, Ottawa, Canada bureau chief of `The Globe and Mail,' turned down Conrad Black's offer to become managing editor to his national Canadian newspaper. Reasons why Greenspon rebuffed the offer; How crime reporter Isabel Vincent will become world correspondent on the unnamed Black publication; How Lawrence Martin has been approached about joining the paper. INSET: Best-sellers.

Opinion. Comments on Conrad Black, the man who controls 58 of the daily newspapers in Canada. How Conrad controls his Canadian media business from England; How Conrad Black views the media; His purchase of the Southam papers; Conrad Black's problems of accuracy; Why some view Conrad as a bully; The author's prediction that Conrad Black will someday be his boss and will fire him.

Pictures journalists confronting publisher Conrad Black after he testified before an Australian Senate inquiry into his 1991 purchase of control in John Fairfax Pty. Ltd. Black denounces former Australian Prime Minister Robert Hawke; Current Prime Minister Paul Keating's promise to lift foreign ownership restrictions in return for better coverage in the Fairfax papers.