MONTREAL — Quebecor Inc. wants its failing printing business to change its name so people don’t think Pierre Karl Péladeau’s entire media empire is falling apart.

Quebecor Inc. has asked Quebecor World to drop their shared name and to take down ‘Quebecor’ signs at its plants.

‘This measure is intended to eliminate any confusion in the public,’ the parent company said in a statement. ‘Quebecor and Quebecor Media are both in excellent financial health and the outlooks for the future of the businesses are excellent.’

The move is unusual but not surprising. Quebecor Inc. is one of Quebec’s big business success stories. The name means as much here as Céline Dion, Cirque du Soleil and Bombardier.

And while printer Quebecor World was once the empire’s main point of pride, in the last few years it has lost that status to sister company Quebecor Media, which owns: Vidéotron; TVA, Quebec’s largest and most powerful private TV network; the canoe.ca website; and the province’s two largest tabloids, Le Journal de Montreal and Le Journal de Quebec.

This week Quebecor World filed for court protection from its creditors after lenders refused to accept terms of a proposed $400-million bailout from Quebecor Inc. and an arm of Brookfield Asset Management Inc.

Under the terms of the order, Ernst & Young will serve as the court-appointed monitor while the company restructures.

The Montreal-based company has also won US$1-billion in new bank financing from Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley to cover operating expenses — including wages and day-to-day operations — over the next 13 weeks.

This financing is subject to approval of courts in both Canada and the United States.