Stephanie Girardi was a Spring 2015 departments editor of the RRJ. So Long
Publishers, editors, writers, and readers all say they want it. So why is long-form journalism disappearing from Canadian magazines?
When Adam Sol finished his speech, a hum of sympathetic noises rose from the crowd at Trampoline Hall. He had just spent 10 minutes talking about being an owner in a fantasy basketball league. It’s a pastime in which men pick their favourite players, create fake teams, and then track the actual individual statistics to […]
Lost in Translation
Reporters have written thousands of words about people with mental illness. Too few of them get inside their heads
I step into the MacDonalds’s eerie living room, where frilly pink tchotchkes and glowing Christmas lights dress every inch of the wall. I’m attempting to find out, firsthand, the challenges of reporting on mental illness. Seven years ago, Donovan Vincent interviewed the family’s oldest son, Todd MacDonald, for his Toronto Star “Madness” series. At that time, […]
Army of One
After being captured and tortured for five days in Iraq last fall, Scott Taylor returned to Canada, his military magazine, Esprit de Corps, and an uncertain future. He wouldn't have it any other way
After Scott Taylor finished picking at what he believed was his last meal, a young Arab came into the room. He grinned as he said, “I am the lucky one who has been chosen to kill you, American dog.” Scott Taylor, editor of Esprit de Corps, at Toronto’s Royal Canadian Military Institute “I want you […]
Chill Out
Take some chances. Break a few rules. Why journalism needs more pranksters
“Through our baby-friendly software,” reads the press release, “infants are making friends all over the world and learning valuable job skills sure to aid them in the new-economy job market.” The subject of this praise is a website – babyspeak.com – empowering Canadian infants to communicate with Japanese, Australian, and German tots. “Why allow your […]
Smooth Operators
The Toronto Star switchboard has built a legendary reputation. And when it comes to tracking down underground criminals or imprisoned reporters, these ladies always get the call
It was after noon on October 29, 1977, when the phone rang in The Toronto Star newsroom. Novice reporter Richard Brennan, working on the rewrite desk, picked up his line. “I want to speak to a reporter,” a woman said. “I was just taken hostage in Northtown Shopping Plaza.” Held captive for half an hour, […]
Selling Out?
Shopping magazines are flying off the shelves. But at what cost to editorial integrity?
It’s 9:30 A.M. on a blue-sky Wednesday in December, and while most of Toronto’s urbanites are settling into desks and cubicles across the city, a zealous crowd is gathering at the Garment Factory Lofts in an industrial strip in the east end. Here, showcasing racks heavy with furs, satins, and leathers in a blur of […]
Newman’s Own
Here's what the ambitious Global anchor gave up in 2001: a high-profile, high-paying job at ABC. Here's what he's got now: a cramped office, a shoestring budget and ratings that threaten the aging Lloyd and Peter
In the middle of a cattle feedlot, an hour south of Calgary, Kevin Newman is sitting in a rental car. It’s 3:05 in the afternoon on May 20, 2003, and his show, Global National News with Kevin Newman (GN), is 25 minutes to air. Newman is thinking about mad cows and what he will do […]
Death in the Community
Thirty-four-year-old Stephen Shaw excelled in capturing the heartbeat of local life. Then without warning, his heart stopped minutes after he won his second Reporter of the Year Award
When Stephen Shaw died on March 6, 2004, it wasn’t national news. It didn’t make The Globe and Mail, and was buried in the GTA section of The Toronto Star. But on March 10, the front-page headline of Oshawa This Week read, “We’ll miss you Stephen.” For weeks, Shaw’s newspaper was flooded with condolences and […]
The War on ‘Terrorist’
Why the semantic gymnastics in my article on the Beslan hostage-taking? Because the "T-word" has been hijacked
I was just one letter among many, but its contents stuck with me. “Mr. MacKinnon,” the reader wrote, “still cannot find within himself the intestinal fortitude to call those who took hundreds of women and children hostages in Beslan, and proceeded to shoot them in the backs, their proper name – terrorists and cowards.” Journalists […]
The New Face of Fashion
Fashion Quarterly, or FQ, is the new Canadian fashion mag. It's really big, glitzy, and glamorous and its editor-in-chief is none other than Jeanne Beker
After strutting down the red carpet flanked by scantily clad models – enrobed in this season’s most fashionable accessory, the trench coat – guests are welcomed into an art deco-inspired ballroom. Inside, the Bombay Sapphire gin flows and the sweet tunes of Canadian jazz crooner Matt Dusk ruffle the wall of peacock feathers. Among the […]
