Northern Tenacity
Love her or hate her, Genesee Keevil of the Yukon News stands as an example of how the North should cover the North: fearlessly
Five years ago, three Yukon News reporters held a meeting tosee who would cover which political party on election night. Genesee Keevil, who had been at the News for two years, drew the right-of-centre Yukon Party. It wasn’t the short straw. She wanted the assignment, as did others. When she arrived at the conference room […]
Hear No Error, See No Error, Post No Error
The controversy over online corrections policies
Before the launch of OpenFile, editor-in-chief Kathy Vey knew that the hyperlocal news site needed an online corrections policy. “It’s not just a policy,” she says. “It’s our credibility on the line.” And once a news outlet loses its credibility, it is extremely difficult to get it back. OpenFile brought Craig Silverman aboard as editorial […]
Too Scared to Try
Around the world, newspapers are boldly experimenting with online infographics—and they're making money. So, what's your problem, Canada?
Hundreds of rings cover a satellite image of Japan’s eastern coast on The New York Times website. The largest ring, which looms over the curve in the land near the city of Fukushima, shows a 9.0 magnitude on the Richter scale; it represents the earthquake that shook the country and caused the devastating tsunami that […]
#twitterfight
Childish sniping, iffy ethics and the sheer lunacy of public feuds expose the human side of journalists. Is that wrong?
Jonathan Goldsbie is a Toronto civic geek. He bikes everywhere, drinks ethically sourced coffee and likes talking about local indie music in Kensington Market. And, of course, he tweets. Constantly. Over his two-and-a-half years on Twitter, he’s averaged about 35 tweets per day. But somehow, this seemingly harmless dude landed himself in one of the […]
Toronto Life’s Christine Dewairy faces design challenger
Stepping in as the art director of a city magazine just two years after a redesign means no chance for another overhaul. Still, Christine Dewairy is making the look her own—even if the reviews are mixed
At Maclean’s, art director Christine Dewairy was responsible for redesigning a tired magazine for the “grandparents,” as she puts it, that was lagging on the newsstand. But when she became responsible for an additional three magazines (MoneySense, Canadian Business and Profit), she found herself doing more overseeing and less designing. So when Toronto Life editor […]
Community papers connect with local readers in ways big city papers can’t
Small towns rely on their papers for a sense of togetherness—and that’s good for both the communities and the publications
Denise Smith doesn’t use the internet and she doesn’t have a smartphone. The small business associate from Grimsby, Ontario, reads one newspaper a week: The Grimsby-Lincoln News. It’s a community newspaper with a weekly circulation of 23,450 that covers the 238 square kilometre stretch between Grimsby and West Lincoln. There is no business or international […]
Is Canada Neglecting Its Journalistic Past?
This country stores its newspaper archives, stack by stack, in a basement and three old warehouses in Ottawa—with little public access. Paper of Record, Bob Huggins’s ambitious digitization project, would have changed that, but it’s history now
Bob Huggins thought he had come up with a nearly surefire plan to make some money and secure a legacy for himself. He would make Canada’s historical newspaper records available to anyone with access to a computer and a public library card. It would be North America’s first large-scale newspaper digitization program, and when he […]
Canada lags behind as online platforms help long-form journalism thrive in the United States
Reports of the death of long-form writing have been greatly exaggerated, especially south of the border, as Kindle Singles, Longform.org, Byliner and Read it Later lead a revival. So what are Canadians waiting for?
Paul Lima says he nearly doubled the profits from nine of his non-fiction books by publishing them as e-books on Amazon’s Kindle website. His feature writing how-to guides sell for two-thirds the price of their hard copy counterparts, but more people buy them. “I’m making money that I wouldn’t have otherwise with the Kindle,” he […]
Online paper’s one-man newsroom beats established paper by exposing a gutted fire department
Since Gagandeep Ghuman launched The Squamish Reporter, he’s shown that good journalism doesn’t require a large staff—just someone willing to rock the boat
Gagandeep Ghuman’s office in downtown Squamish, British Columbia, regularly consists of a seat in a coffee shop, a cell phone and his laptop. Ghuman is the reporter and editor for his online newspaper, The Squamish Reporter. “It’s a one-man newsroom,” he says. In September of 2010, he wrote and published “Playing with Fire,” a story […]
Say Word Keeps Kids Out of Trouble and Interested in Journalism
A magazine by and for young people, Say Word de-bunks negative stereotypes of a community while helping at-risk kids—and maybe nurturing a new generation of journalists
Even though it’s Saturday morning, the staff of Say Word is busy running a casting call for the next issue’s fashion spread. Young people scatter around an office on the third floor of a grey commercial building. Anita Singh stations herself at the entrance, greeting models; Tevin Thompson sets up the camera and lights for […]
