The suggestion by New York Times columnist David Carr that newspaper boardrooms would be a good place for Occupy protesters to attack the abuse of corporate power struck some kind of chord with Rosie DiManno of the Toronto Star in light of the scramble to retain revenues.

"I'm not opposed to change," she wrote in her Halloween column. "I just don't think we know what were doing."

Hope that a return to embracing the broadsheet is the best way out of dependence on what DiManno dubbed "digital dross" is sort of ridiculous — although colleague Antonia Zerbisias fearlessly tweeted that it was actually written in code in response to management expectations at the expense of paying subscribers. Later this week, Torstar's earnings report may reveal if it's working.

Postmedia Network, meanwhile, delivered its latest financials last Friday. And the biggest takeaway was the largest Canadian newspaper chain will continue to roll out its paywall strategy.

The decision last spring to put a metered system on the websites of the Montreal Gazette and Victoria TImes Colonist seemed especially cautious — the latter publication has even been sold off since — as only those who exceeded a 20-click maximum per month were asked to pay up. And it couldn't have been a coincidence that the two markets had the oldest readership. Readers accustomed to one doorstep source are more likely to subscribe, after all, than those who are plugged into social media.

Garnering online enthusiasm for any publishing brand is the biggest issue of all, though. Postmedia has evidently banked on its recognition as a broadsheet publisher across western Canada — enough for the U.S. firm that backed the effort to keep the former Canwest papers afloat, Alden Global Capital, to see them as ideal for a consolidation strategy as prelude to a swift sell-off.

"Digital First" is the credo being used to justify the shift from an actual newsroom to a user-generated virtual one dependent upon social media — as rolled out last week in Edmonton. Members of the digital advisory board, including Jeff Jarvis and Jay Rosen, have been vocal opponents of putting paywalls in the way. Yet how else to soothe investors with the promise of a quick revenue fix?

Meanwhile, the Toronto Sun celebrates its 40th anniversary this week, which will prompt the inevitable nostalgia about how an imaginative tabloid was able to emerge from the carcass of the Toronto Telegram. Four decades later, even as Rosie DiManno complains that media is too accelerated, the boardrooms are clearly hoping that a true digital transformation takes as long as possible.