Pierre Peladeau; Created Canadian Media Empire

Pierre Peladeau, 72, a Canadian media mogul who built one of Canada’s largest publishing and media empires. Unlike many of Quebec’s top business executives, Peladeau expressed support for the drive to make the mostly French-speaking province an independent country. Peladeau built Quebecor Inc. into a company that posted more than $4 billion in revenues in 1996. Founded in 1950, Quebecor employs 34,000 people worldwide, with business interests in Canada, the United States and Europe. In his home province of Quebec, Peladeau was most closely identified with Le Journal de Montreal, a racy tabloid founded in 1964 that is now Quebec’s biggest-selling daily and Quebecor’s flagship newspaper. Quebecor also owns the tabloid Winnipeg Sun, a Quebec television network and Quebecor Printing, North America’s second-largest commercial printer. In Montreal on Wednesday after a heart attack.