[This event was moderated by Rick Wolfe of PostStone]

The gloves were unlaced in Toronto’s escalating newspaper war yesterday, when top marketing executives from the four battling dailies talked shop in front of about 200 advertising and marketing types. Mutual admiration turned to subtle potshots and finger-pointing as each portrayed another as the paper with the most to lose. "I think the National Post is to be congratulated," The Toronto Star’s Jeffrey Shearer said early on, referring to editorial improvements in other papers sparked by the new arrival. "It’s got us out spending money again."

So much promotional money is being spent, said The Toronto Sun’s Jay Donnelly, "that one of the problems for us recently has been to find some media we could buy." All agreed it was a great time to be in the billboard business.

The jovial tone continued but competitive digs soon surfaced.

"We all believed [the Post] would be more upscale than you appear to be," said The Globe and Mail’s Darcia Joseph, who described as minimal the drop in Globe circulation of 4,000 to 5,000 copies in the first few days of the Post. Mr. Shearer said the Star suffered a similar decrease. National Post’s Ron Clark suggested that wouldn’t be the last blow for the Star.

"The fact of the matter is you’ve probably got the most to lose in this," said Mr. Clark, suggesting the Star, as the middle-brow paper that tries to appeal most broadly, is literally surrounded by competitors. "You’ve got Jay sniping at your ass, and me and Darcia sort of picking at your brains."

That got the audience laughing.

"From a media-buying standpoint, competition is the most wonderful thing that can happen," said Jack Bensimon, president of the advertising agency Bensimon Byrne DMB&B. "The bargaining power has never been greater."

This panel, convened by the American Marketing Association Toronto, was organized prior to Torstar’s surprise hostile bid on Wednesday to buy Sun Media, parent of the tabloid Toronto Sun.

Mr. Bensimon said he can appreciate the cost efficiencies that such a merger could produce --"sending one truck down Yonge Street instead of two."

He also suspects the strategy includes Torstar publishing morning and evening papers. "I wonder from a positioning standpoint if they’re not trying to secure ownership of local news on a morning and evening basis."