The Sun Also Rises Up
Sure, SONG can protect jobs, get better benefits and unionize The Toronto Sun. But can it protect editorial integrity? Only sometimes
It’s not that I am anti-union, it’s that I’m anti-union for newspaper writers,” wrote columnist Christie Blatchford in 1991, while praising her employer, The Toronto Sun, on its 20th anniversary. “This is one of the greatest jobs in the world. I do not need a union to tell me I should be demanding time-and-a-half while […]
Big Push, Big Error
Thanks, in part, to John Honderich's freer-spending ways, the Star hit a series of investigative home runs. But it also embarrassed itself with one horrendous strike-out
It was the Saturday morning of the 2003 Canada Day weekend and Don Sellar, ombudsman for The Toronto Star, was in for a big shock. Sellar, who was on vacation at his brother-in-law’s Balsam Lake cottage, had decided to pick up a copy of the Star from a nearby newspaper box. That’s where he saw […]
Crusades, Convergence & Cutbacks
A special two-part look at the Toronto Star. How it was - and how many predict it will be
When The Ryerson Review of Journalism began developing story ideas last September, we had two proposals about Torstar. Keri Schram wanted to look at The Toronto Star’s investigative crusades that, though risky and expensive, sparked debate about pressing city issues. Melissa Hank wanted to write about The Stoney Creek News, a weekly paper near her […]
The Walrus Loses Its Carpenter(2)
The time has come the walrus said, to talk of many things, of ad sales, circ and lofty goals - and management reshufflings
It is the afternoon of February 4, 2004. David Berlin has taken time out from deadline pressure at The Walrus’ Duncan Street offices in downtown Toronto to be a guest speaker in a journalism class at Ryerson University. The editor of the ambitious new Canadian general interest magazine – Canada’s answer to Harper’s, he hopes […]
Problem Child
As buyers circle around the struggling Toronto1, one thing is certain: any new owner will have to do something about the station's sorry news programs
It’s 8 o’clock on a mid-October evening, a few weeks into Toronto1’s broadcasting life, and Tracy Moore, a reporter for the fledgling television station, is on her way to interview Playboy Bunnies. The release party for the trademark calendar – featuring young Canadian women – is being held at a Thomas Hinds Tobacconists shop in […]
Wartoons
Cartoonist David Rees declares cartoons on war
It is less than a month after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the United States government has just begun bombing Afghanistan. It’s the middle of the night in an apartment in Brooklyn and David Rees, a freelance magazine fact-checker and occasional cartoonist is trying to make sense of everything that has being […]
The Loyal Stenographer
Murdoch Davis has been criticized for his role in pumping out Izzy's Asper-torials. Let the critics carp, says Davis. A portrait of a company man
Murdoch Davis is a company man. As he’d be the first to tell you, the paycheque buys his loyalty. It buys his opinions, his arguments, and his towering indignation. That dedication has elevated him to the top of the country’s biggest daily newspaper chain. From his office, high in the 33-storey Toronto-Dominion Building, the tallest […]
Selling Students Short
Marketing-driven teen magazines are entering Canadian high schools in the hundreds of thousands. They all teach one lesson: spend
“Please rise for the national anthem.” A few students yawn, stretch and rub their eyes as if their beds ejected them into class. Eyelids gradually close, open, then close again. It’s early Friday morning at Port Perry High School in southeastern Ontario. Communications teacher Mr. Scuse introduces me as a “special treat” to the class; […]
That Was Then, This is Now
Perception: Now magazine is hard hitting and encourages investigative journalism. Reality: the weekly is more concerned with real estate, reviews, and running its restaurant
One evening last fall, staff members of Now, Toronto’s largest and most enduring alternative weekly, stood in the publication’s lounge armed with questions, comments, and drink tickets. But, compared to Now‘s boisterous 20th anniversary celebration in 2001, the mood at this gathering was restrained. If people seemed uneasy, even nervous, that’s because Michael Hollett, the […]
Al’s Excellent Adventure
Not only did Cottage Life founder Al Zikovitz construct a mini-publishing empire, he did it without sacrificing editorial credibility. Too bad there aren't more like him
It may have been the most unusual editorial retreat in the history of Canadian publishing. Back in September 2001, fresh from buying Explore magazine, 60-year-old Al Zikovitz was climbing Mount Athabasca, near the Columbia Icefields in Alberta. Did it bother him that a strong wind was blowing snow off the glacier and that he lacked […]
