Two Sides of the Same Coin
Rival money mags show there's more than one way to fill your piggy bank
Everybody is thinking about money. Those of us building our financial futures want and need to know more about the little money we have. Those with more money want to make sure it’s doing something for us. The growing number of columns in our papers, information on the Internet and magazines dealing with money matters […]
The Last of the Big Shots
As the great cameramen fade to legend, their cheaper replacements struggle to shoulder the load
Scowling portraits of premiers past glower at the members of the Queen’s Park press corps as they saunter down from their comfortable offices to the scrum area at the Ontario legislature. On arrival, the seven cameramen and 16 reporters are hit with huge news: a tax break for the province’s two pro hockey teams. The […]
Killer Assignment
For 15 years The Vancouver Sun's Kim Bolan has fought to expose the Air India bombers—now they want her dead
It’s the end of a long week in October for Vancouver Sun reporter Kim Bolan. This was supposed to be her last day in the newsroom before going south of the border on a two-week speaking tour with the other recipients of the International Women’s Media Foundation awards. It’s now the middle of the afternoon […]
Schmooze Operators
The Canadian Association of Black Journalists is out to prove the best way to change the system is from the inside
Fil Fraser, armed with his remote control, is hoping to show me how times have changed for black journalists in Canada. He aims the remote at the television set, surfing the channels to count how many black journalists he finds. Karen Percy’s smiling white face greets us on CBC Newsworld. Click. Another white anchor, Leslie […]
The Watchdogs
It takes a special breed of lawyer to deliver us from libel
“Has this been lawyered?” How often in newspaper, radio and TV newsrooms, in magazine offices, does this clarion call go out on any given day? Lawyering may be a clunky term, but it’s become as much a part of publishing and broadcasting as copy and tape editing. So much so, in fact, that some lawyers […]
All the Rave
Will covering drum 'n' bass, trance, hip hop and house strike a chord with young readers? Why some newspapers are shaking up the music beat
To say that Ben Rayner and Joshua Ostroff are exhausted would be an understatement. The pair has endured three days of burning sunshine, fast food and little-to-no sleep, and the wear and tear is evident. They look no different, though, than the thousands of other burned-out 20-somethings around them – with their hair cropped close […]
Redesigning Women
Three new editors, two face-lifts and a corporate shift—will four of our best-read magazines survive the shake up?
Patricia just turned 55, but with her youthful skin and blond-highlighted hair, she could easily pass for 45. She has three kids, a full-time career, enjoys the outdoors, has weekends with the girls and steals from her daughter’s closet. For almost 40 years she has read, argued with, got advice from and generally been educated […]
Good Night and Good Luck
I was 16 years old when I started watching Bill Cameron. And I never stopped...until he did
Bill Cameron changed my life. He was the broadcast personality who moved me through his print writing. He was the authoritative anchor who admitted to having a dreadful suspicion that as journalists, “we dip into the surface of events, paddle with our feet, exploit tragedies for the good of our careers and get the story […]
Beaming Canada to the World
Despite a half-century of financial static, Radio Canada International comes in loud and clear to more than eight million listeners a week
Even now, it’s a day Derek Quinn doesn’t like to think about – the Friday in March 1991 when he received a call telling him to get to the office as soon as possible. When he arrived at the Montreal headquarters of Radio Canada International, he found a lobby full of colleagues who had received […]
Sympathy for the Old Devil
Hell must be freezing over; Ted Byfield is cooling off
Ted Byfield is in his element. At home in his office, his silvering hair slicked back Sinatra-style, he is surrounded by his heavy leather-bound editions of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and The Cambridge Medieval History. A sign on the wall trumpets beer as “so much more than a breakfast drink.” Virginia, […]
