Author Vic Parsons, a veteran journalist who spent six years with Thomson Newspapers, doesn’t hide his disdain for Canada’s richest capitalist, a reclusive press baron whose life bears little resemblance to that of the average working (or unemployed) journalist. But the book’s real weakness is not its “peon’s perspective,” but the very limited access that Parsons had to his subject. He has had to rely heavily on newspaper clippings and anecdotes from former Globe and Mail boss Roy Megarry. Ken Thomson’s voice barely ripples through the pages of this biography. In fact, the more colourful accounts concern his larger-than-life father, Roy, who built the Thomson empire. Shy, nervous Ken emerges as a titular tycoon who rubber-stamps the decisions masterminded by deputy chairman and lawyer John Tory.

While this slim volume is a weak biography, it is a useful history of the Thomson company; Parsons has solidly researched how the empire has grown and changed during Ken’s watch. Although the family’s wealth grew out of small-town Canadian newspapers, the author maintains that Thomson Corp., having recently sold off three-quarters of its Canadian dailies, is in the process of transforming itself into an American corporation that sells primarily electronic databases. The company now earns most of its revenues in the U.S., and even the Canadian newspapers report to management in Connecticut. There are the inevitable stories about Thomson’s cheapskate corporate culture, but Parsons also points out that in the early 1990s, the Thomson empire actually made a stab at upgrading its dailies – though he faults Thomson for lacking the resolve to persevere with that strategy. It’s a judgment that any ink-stained wretch would share.