Torstar goes after new readers

Article Excerpt

TORSTAR $7.44 (Toronto symbol TS.B; Shares outstanding: 79.9 million; Market cap: $600.5 million; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 7.1%; www.torstar.com) gets 60% of its revenue from advertising on its newspapers and their websites, including The Toronto Star, Canada’s largest daily by circulation. Subscriptions account for the remaining 40%. As part of a new strategy to increase online advertising sales, Torstar plans to drop the paywall on The Toronto Star’s website and launch a new free version for tablet computers. The shift will likely hurt its 2015 revenue but should attract more readers in the long run. Torstar especially hopes that the tablet edition will attract a younger audience. Torstar is a buy. buy. …