Update March 13: The Globe and Mail reports that Torstar Corporation, publisher of Canada’s largest newspaper The Toronto Star, is one of the bidders for Canwest newspapers. (Torstar owns 20 percent of Black Press, previously identified as a potential buyer.) Also named in the story as backers of various bids are Fairfax Financial Holdings (the Toronto company, not the Australian one), Onex Corp., Alberta Investment Management Corp. and Australia’s Macquarie Group. And Dennis Skulsky, head of the Canwest newspaper group, has resigned.

(Original item follows.) The Asper family is involved in one of “about” six bids to acquire Canada’s largest newspaper group, Canwest LP, according to the Globe and Mail. The newspaper goes on to list the usual suspects — David Black of Black Press, Glacier Media Inc. and an executive buyout led by National Post president Paul Godfrey — and speculates that the others are “private-equity investors.”

The print portion of Canwest Global Communications Corp. was put up for sale by its creditors, Canada’s largest banks, earlier this year, and bidding closed March 5. Many others expressed interest in parts of the newspaper chain, but the banks want to unload all 11 dailies and 35 community papers for a minimum C$950 million.

The Globe article doesn’t say who’s bankrolling the Aspers in the newspaper auction, but Leonard Asper resigned last month from the company his father created, and then joined Goldman Sachs in its efforts to block Shaw Communications’ purchase of the bankruptcy-protected broadcast and cable side of Canwest Global.