UPDATE 2-Canwest wins more time to reshape newspaper unit

* Extends deadline to move National Post into Canwest LP

* Now has until Oct 22 to complete the move

* Canwest LP has not filed for creditor protection

(Adds detail, background)

TORONTO, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Canwest Global Communications Corp CGS.TO said on Friday its main subsidiary has won more time to transfer the National Post into the same entity as the rest of its newspaper operations so it can proceed with recapitalizing the whole company.

Canwest, Canada's biggest media company, said noteholders at Canwest Media Inc have given it until Oct. 22 to move the Post into the Canwest Limited Partnership unit.

The National Post, Canwest's flagship daily newspaper, was among the units of the company that filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this month.

The move is important because Canwest LP -- which contains the Winnipeg, Manitoba-based company's Canadian newspaper chain -- did not file for creditor protection and rumors continue to swirl that it will be sold.

Still, it's also possible that Canwest LP will make a creditor protection filing before any sale.

Canwest, which has about 7,400 employees, has been creaking under a debt load of about C$4 billion ($3.85 billion). It had been in months-long talks with creditors about how to restructure its strained balance sheet.

Like other media companies, Canwest has been hit as the recession choked off advertising revenues. It has already slashed costs, with 560 layoffs announced in November 2008.

Some of Canwest's debt dates back to its 2000 acquisition of newspapers from former press baron Conrad Black's Hollinger International in a deal worth C$3.2 billion.

The acquisition made Canwest the country's biggest publisher of daily newspapers. It included 13 big-city dailies as well as 126 community newspapers, Internet assets and a 50 percent stake in the National Post. The company later bought full control of the Post.

In 2007, Canwest expanded its television holdings by partnering with an affiliate of U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs (GS.N) to buy specialty-TV group Alliance Atlantis Communications for C$2.3 billion.

The specialty-TV operations also are not part of Canwest's creditor protection filing.

The Toronto Stock Exchange announced on Thursday that Canwest's shares, which have already been suspended from trading, will be delisted as of Nov. 13. ($1=$1.04 Canadian) (Reporting by Wojtek Dabrowski; editing by Janet Guttsman)