First Stage of the Acquisition of The Jerusalem Post Completed WINNIPEG, Dec. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CanWest Global Communications Corp. today announced that its partner, Mirkaei Tikshoret Group Ltd (MTL) has completed the acquisition of the shares of the Palestine Post Limited, the publisher of The Jerusalem Post, The Jerusalem Report and related properties (The Jerusalem Post Group) from Hollinger International Inc. for US$13.2 million, in cash. The transaction had received approval from the Israeli anti- trust regulatory authorities on December 8th. Under an arrangement announced in mid-November, the MTL and CanWest joint venture partnership will own all the assets of The Jerusalem Post newspaper and related properties. The partnership is expected to complete the acquisition of the Jerusalem Post Group assets by the end of December 2004. MTL is a major privately held media group based in Israel, with business interests that include newspapers, magazines, radio, out-of-home advertising and commercial printing. The Jerusalem Post Group consists of The Jerusalem Post, a daily English language newspaper, and several related publications and media operations. The Jerusalem Post was founded in 1932 and was originally published as The Palestine Post and adopted its current masthead in 1953. The Group includes The International Jerusalem Post, the world's leading weekly publication focusing on Israel and the Jewish world, with paid circulation in over 100 countries, and The Weekend Jerusalem Post, published in metropolitan New York, a French language weekly, Edition Francais Jerusalem Post, which expands the reach of the newspaper to French-language readers around the world and The Jerusalem Report, a weekly news magazine with paid circulation in 70 countries. Jpost.com, the Group's online news Web site is the most frequently visited Israeli Web site with 14 million page views per month, more than one million unique users monthly and over 385,000 registered users. Jpost.com accounts for nearly 20% of the Group's advertising revenues. The Jerusalem Post Group also owns an Internet radio station jpradio.com, which commenced operations in 2000. Leonard Asper, President and Chief Executive Officer of CanWest, said, "We are pleased that this acquisition is moving forward as planned and are excited about working with our new partners in Israel in building on a great global newspaper brand. One of our first priorities will be to bring CanWest MediaWorks' expertise to bear in improving the profile and circulation in North America of the Jerusalem Post." Mr. Eli Azur, President and Chief Executive Officer of the MTL Group, said, "This brings to close an important first step for this transaction. We now can move forward quickly to work on further developing a great international newspaper, magazine and website." This news release contains certain comments or forward-looking statements that are based largely upon the Company's current expectations and are subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties. These factors could cause actual future performance to vary materially from current expectations. CanWest Global Communications Corp. (NYSE: CWG; TSX: CGS.SV and CGS.NV, http://www.canwestglobal.com/) is an international media company, and also Canada's largest media company. In addition to owning the Global Television Network, CanWest is Canada's largest publisher of daily newspapers, and also owns, operates and/or holds substantial interests in conventional television, out-of- home advertising, specialty cable channels, Web sites and radio networks in Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Ireland. DATASOURCE: CanWest Global Communications Corp. CONTACT: Geoffrey Elliot, Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Tel: (204) 956-2025, Fax: (204) 947-9841,

Copyright