Kamloops no longer has a daily paper, but it’s no town without news
When the Daily News shut down, it deprived residents of the B.C. city of their regular routine, but not of journalism
By Aimee O’Connor With a ceremonial click of a button, Mel Rothenburger, who’d retired as editor-in-chief in 2012, simultaneously put to bed the last issue of the Kamloops Daily News and an 80-year-old tradition. The front page headline on the January 11 edition read, “I really don’t know what I’m going to do when there’s […]
Is La Presse+ the solution to newspaper woes or a capitulation to advertisers?
A Montreal newspaper's new tablet app is proving popular with readers, but the content may need to become lighter to please the real customers
By Arielle Piat-Sauvé Guy Crevier knew something needed to change when he compared the drop in newspaper revenue to the aging baby-boomer population. The president and publisher of La Presse suspected that as his core readership aged, newspaper sales could decrease significantly. Fearing it was only a matter of time before the traditional newspaper model […]
Jane Armstrong takes her passion for investigative journalism to The Tyee
The long-time print reporter faces the challenge of following founding editor David Beers at the independent online magazine
By Megan Matsuda Jane Armstrong got chills when she heard Rita Daly’s idea for a new investigative series. The two Toronto Star reporters were at a party, chatting in the backyard. Why, Daly asked, did so few domestic abuse cases result in a conviction? Together with Caroline Mallan, they began an intense, nearly year-long effort […]
Canadian University Press must reinvent itself to stay alive
The world’s oldest student news service is losing members because it no longer gives large papers what they want
By Amy Grief When the sports editor at the Queen’s Journal requested media passes from the school’s athletics department in August, he received one instead of the usual eight. Back in March, the previous sports editor, Nick Faris, reported on how Queen’s University Athletics selected its varsity team of the year after nullifying an original […]
Missed opportunity: the Rice video was about domestic abuse, not sports
When a football player hit a woman in an elevator, journalists were quick to write about it, but too many wrote about the wrong issue
By Alanna Kelly There are many viral videos that The Globe and Mail columnist Elizabeth Renzetti refuses to watch, but she had to see the video that showed Ray Rice punching his then-fiancée Janay Palmer. As disgusting as it was, it showed an issue that people needed to talk about. The couple had just left […]
Government secrecy thwarts coverage of spill at B.C. mine
Without access to inspection reports, journalists can’t report what really happened at Mount Polley
By Cormac McGee Out at the Mount Polley mine site in south-central British Columbia in mid-September 2014, Gordon Hoekstra found himself with a few hours to kill before his flight back to Vancouver. The mine’s dammed tailings pond—which holds fine rock particles left over after the ore is extracted—had breached a few weeks earlier on […]
Social media and television news: never the twain shall meet
After seven months on air, CTV's Kevin Newman Live gave up trying to bridge the gap between online interaction and traditional broadcast journalism
By: Erica Lenti It started with a shaky, selfie-angled smartphone shot. Kevin Newman, then 54, held his device up for the opening monologue of his new TV show the same way a teenager would at the club—arm raised, head slightly tilted. He then began the broadcast straight from his smartphone. The night’s top story, Newman […]
Camera, Set, Activism! Ideology goes to the movies
With no place for politics in mainstream film reviews, several Canadian journals explore the messages in the medium
By Amelia Brown When Adam Nayman wrote about the Swedish version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in 2009, his editor at Eye Weekly wasn’t happy. The review criticized the movie’s “fake feminism,” arguing the brutal violence against a woman was rendered moot after she beat the perpetrator even more viciously. But the editor wondered whether these criticisms […]
Fade to black: Is it over for the newspaper film critic?
Times are tough for those who write about movies for a living. Their numbers are dwindling while the internet is full of amateur reviewers. And that’s bad news for the pros and their readers
By Miro Rodriguez Peter Howell celebrated his 13th birthday at Toronto’s Glendale Cinerama in 1969 watching 2001: A Space Odyssey. It’s still his favourite movie. The next year, he used the money he earned delivering the Toronto Telegram to buy a book called The Making of Kubrick’s 2001. “Whatever early instinct I had to be a movie critic was […]
If local news will be the saviour of Canadian journalism, what are you going to do about it, broadcasters?
With the Local Programming Improvement Fund set to dry up next year, television networks must find ways to cover news outside big cities without blowing the budget. But cheaper isn't always better
By Harriet Luke Last month, convicted killer Kyle Halbauer talked to reporter Dan Zakreski about how he started dealing cocaine. The exclusive CBC Saskatchewan interview was a revealing look at Saskatoon’s drug trade and it’s the kind of in-depth story that managing director John Agnew would love to do more often. But the report was possible […]
