Lord Sifton Of Fleet?
In the last two years, Michael Sifton has purchased 60 newspapers and he's looking for more. Not good news if you're a union supporter
Michael Sifton strolls out the front door of his Markham office carrying a Tim Hortons coffee. It’s before 7 a.m. and Sifton’s Cadillac SUV is the only car in the lot. I am joining Osprey Media Group’s president and CEO for a drive to one of his newspapers, The Barrie Examiner. Today is not a […]
Obstacle Course
Why are there so few disabled journalists? Physical barriers are just one part of the answer
Even if you don’t remember Jeff Adams’s name, you probably remember what he did last fall. On September 26, 2002, he climbed the 1,760 steps of the CN Tower staircase – in a modified wheelchair. What you probably never knew was why he did it. Media coverage of the Toronto event came close to saturation […]
Up From the Underground
After three tough years representin' hip-hop Canada, Pound magazine's Rodrigo Bascu??n and Michael Evans have found commercial success. They're expanding into the U.S. and, if all goes well, moving out of Rodrigo's Mom's basement
Saddam Hussein circles Lanny McDonald, preparing to spit venom at the retired hockey player. Twirling his moustache, McDonald stares the dictator down. The Iraqi leader and the hockey legend line up head-to-head in the cipher, preparing to face off in the final round of the battle of the moustaches. They bump mikes, declaring lyrical warfare. […]
Dead in its Tracks
Shift seemed to have as many lives as a cat. Or at least it did, until Multi-Vision Publishing put it out of its misery
It’s a cold, mid-November night, but inside at Shift‘s annual “State of the Net” party, things are heating up. The scene: the vast open space of the Guvernment, a Toronto nightclub, where the thump, thump, thump of the bass is pounding so forcefully that it feels like a second heartbeat in your chest and where […]
Wheels of Fortune
Papers are publishing increasing numbers of advertorials. Is the credibility of the dailies taking a backseat to revved-up revenues?
Robert Reid has seen the advertorial battle from the front lines of his own newsroom. As a reporter and union chair for the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, Reid remembers when the advertising department tried to introduce advertorial production into the newsroom back in 1989, just as staff were about to ratify their first union contract. At other […]
Home Alone
For the Toronto Star's David Olive, one of Canada's most respected business journalists, writing isn't what he does for a living. It's his life's work. But at what personal cost?
It’s near midnight in October on Bloor west near Keele in Toronto’s west end. All is quiet except for whirring winds and the thunder of late-night transports, but the neighbourhood coffee shop-reminiscent of a garage-turned-game show set-is still open for business. Under the pulsating glow of the flashing bulbs bordering the Galaxy Donuts sign, a […]
Watered Down
Staying afloat is no easy task in the tiny publishing world of Atlantic Canada. The surest way to smooth sailing? Don't make waves
Coastlife magazine was conceived in November 1998 around a coffee table laden with a pot of tea, mugs and bowls of hummus and chips. Kyle Shaw, Christine Oreskovich, Catherine Salisbury and Heidi Hallet had gathered at Shaw and Oreskovich’s Halifax home for the fall board meeting of The Coast, at the time a five-year-old weekly […]
Apocalypse Bob
"An eco-shitstorm is coming," says Citytv ecology specialist and Greenpeace co-founder Bob Hunter. Out to save the world, he's partisan, pissed off and proud of it
It’s 4:30 a.m. Bob Hunter turns off his alarm clock, steps into his slippers and selects a robe from one of nearly a dozen in his closet. In the bathroom, he gathers his long, thin, greying hair and ties it back into a ponytail, splashes cold water on his face and hooks his dark-rimmed glasses […]
Bad Boys, Booze and Bylines
The rise and demise of the Toronto Press Club
The press club door had a buzzer in those days. You had to ring the buzzer and then wait for the door to open. On this night, someone is leaning on the buzzer. Inside, as the door opens, turned heads watch with surprise-and no surprise-as Duncan Macpherson falls through to the floor. He’s drunk, with […]
Much Much Less
Twenty years ago real journalism had regular airplay on the nation's music station. Today, however, critical commentary has been pushed aside by MuffPuff and MuchMoreFluff
Outside the CHUMCity building on Queen Street West in downtown Toronto, a crowd of people has gathered. They’re eagerly inching closer to the metal barricades that have been set up for the occasion. Wearing wristbands, some have been waiting for hours. Some cluster against the far windows. Hot breath fogs up the glass?a good indication […]
