In the Line of Fire
Reporting from the battlefront is becoming increasingly dangerous. So why do war correspondents keep venturing into deadly territory?
Levon Sevunts, the Montreal Gazette‘s foreign correspondent, felt lucky when Northern Alliance commander General Bashir offered to carry him and some other foreign correspondents aboard his armoured personnel carrier to some newly captured Taliban trenches. It was November 11, 2001, just after the fighting had subsided and the Taliban had begun their unexpected retreat from […]
Lost in Translation
Too much Italian! Too little Spanish! Way too much English! The messy language battle at Telatino and why tongues are wagging
Recently, during some serious channel surfing, I discovered that there’s more to dull Saturday nights than infomercials and decorating shows. Way up in the gods of Rogers Cable TV in Toronto, on Channel 35, packaged between Country Music Television and the Learning Channel, there’s foreign-language television! Cash giveaways, salsa and tango interludes, and performances by […]
Twists and Turns
Top execs at CBC Radio have a tough puzzle to solve: how to freshen up the lineup without antagonizing loyal listeners. The result so far: more wrong turns than right
“It’s lonely in here,” says Anna Maria Tremonti, host of the new flagship CBC Radio program, The Current, over the intercom from the studio to the control room during the 8 a.m. newsbreak. Tremonti sits at a round table surrounded by abandoned chairs, microphones, and earphones. When the World Report newscast ends, Willy Barth, morning […]
Popularity Contest
Canadian fashion books are in a race to win the hearts and dollars of teen readers. But can they give the glitter girls are looking for?
Ceri Marsh looks like a giddy 16-year-old, with her high ponytail, sleeveless T-shirt, and long denim skirt. Sitting at the head of a long boardroom table at 59 Front Street East in Toronto, she welcomes guests to what is essentially her party. Marsh is actually 35 years old, the senior editor and powerhouse behindFashion 18, […]
Measuring Up
Custom publications don't have to be editorial lightweights. It is actually possible, discovers our surprised writer, to sell products without selling your soul
Custom publishing has no integrity. Or at least that is what I used to think. After nearly four years in the journalism program at Ryerson University, I was left with the impression that integrity could not exist within the pages of a custom publication. I assumed that after my university education there was no way […]
Old Diggers
As the baby boomers begin to reach their golden years, two magazines — 50Plus and Good Times — think they've got the right editorial formula. They don't
“Grey? I can picture the logo—lower case, sans serif type, widely spaced. Very clean look, very sharp,” says Doug Bennet, publisher of Masthead magazine. “I would bet you 50 bucks someone’s going to do it at some point.” There’s a reason Bennet can envision this sort of general interest publication, aimed at older people simply […]
World Domination
The big failure of foreign coverage today: troubled hot zones get all the ink while the problems of Guatemala and other developing countries have fallen off the map
“Perfect timing,” exclaims The Globe and Mail‘s boyish foreign editor as he whisks me up to the second-floor newsroom. “You’re here just in time for a crisis.” John Stackhouse seems frazzled-wide eyes and nervous laughter belie his usually cool demeanor. The headlining feature for the weekend foreign section, just 36 hours from deadline, has lost […]
Free for All
Inside Toronto's commuter paper war, a battle that left everybody bloodied
For two weeks in March 2000, Vian Ewart woke early each morning and headed for the Toronto subway system, not to get anywhere in particular, but to observe. Starting at 6 a.m., he rode the Bloor-Danforth line from the west end of the city to the east end and back again, moving from car to […]
The Scoop on Ed
Edward Greenspon has spent a third of his life on the Globe's payroll—dodging bullets, hounding politicians, and waking up too damn early. Now editor-in-chief, he reveals what drives him, what brings him to his knees, and what he plans for the paper
The editor-in-chief of The Globe and Mail is on his hands and knees in the boardroom. His navy suit wrinkles as his tie dangles down toward the herringbone rug. We trade glances. Mine is a look of bewilderment, his a look of mock fright. Suddenly, he ducks his head under the edge of the table […]
Hard Covers, Soft Coverage
Too much marketing, too little critical commentary: why some TV book shows should be tossed in the remainder bin
It’s 11 p.m. on a Sunday and four women are gossiping around a coffee table on the set of Mary Walsh: Open Book, a half-hour show launched in July 2002.Walsh and her guests, poet Susan Musgrave, columnist Jan Wong, and singer/songwriter Jann Arden, are having a hard time focusing on Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club: […]
