After a Refashion
Canada's top business magazines needed overhauls. Art Jonhson of Canadian Business went bimonthly. Patricia Best of ROB Magazine chose an edgy redesign. More than a year has passed. Are the changes working?
Inside the conference room at CB Media Ltd., Art Johnson, editor of Canadian Business, leans back on his chair and puts his hands behind his head. His greying, wispy hair is carefully combed to the side and his blue-grey eyes seem to hide under his dark eyebrows. The room has a low ceiling, dull lighting and […]
”Ah, that a man should live so well”
Remembering Jim MacNeill, publisher, editor, iconoclast
At last spring’s convocation for the University of King’s College, the keynote speaker was the 62-year-old publisher and editor of the Prince Edward Island weekly Eastern Graphic: a man renowned for journalistic bravery, who forbade his reporters to attend press conferences, regularly scooped the dailies and insisted on paying his interns. On May 14, 1998, Jim MacNeill […]
”Lights! Camera! Action!”
Do dramatic elements in documentaries deceive the audience or do they enhance storytelling? Do viewers really care?
Standing in ankle-deep snow, Peter Lynch, director of Project Grizzly, had a vision he wanted to portray. The documentary he was filming focused on Troy Hurtubise, a self-professed mountain man whose quest was to find a grizzly bear and grapple with it, wearing a handmade suit of armour. Rather than following Hurtubise around for weeks […]
Battle for Survival
Is the wildlife journalist facing the same fate as the whooping crane and the bowhead whale?
Blissfully sleeping for about five hours in a tent pitched on snow as hard as concrete, Jerry Kobalenko isn’t disturbed by the 24 hours of daylight and -15?C air of the polar desert. The writer, drawn to Arctic exploration, has travelled all night and is halfway through a 500-kilometre trek, camping on Ellesmere Island, the […]
Ethics On Ice
CBC Sports rarely does any real hockey journalism. Even when it tries, it trips
“I want to be in a position to average out 1.5 [million dollars],” says Don Meehan, a National Hockey League player agent, as he argues with Bill Watters, assistant to the president for the Toronto Maple Leafs, over a new contract for Tie Domi. “Jesus Christ!” responds Watters. He pauses. “Well, that’s not a bad […]
Whine and Cheese
Noted wine critic Margaret Swaine takes a tongue-in-cheek look behind the scenes on the tasting circuit—way behind the scenes
One afternoon in Italy, part way through yet another day crammed with too many winery visits, my fellow wine writers and I went on strike. We had tanker loads of wine coursing through our veins, stomachs that bulged from five-hour-long meals and eyes that drooped from lack of sleep. We had warned our hosts that […]
Poll Position
Freelance reporter Harvey Schachter has a better way to give pollsters' numbers credibility (19 times out of 20)
November 26, four days before the 1998 Quebec election: A smug Jacques Parizeau, arms folded across his ample girth, looks out from the front page of the Ottawa Citizen under the headline “Parizeau: Take the ‘Booty’ and Run.” Under the photo caption is the first half of the story titled “Separatists Poised for Landslide.” It’s […]
We’re Here, We’re Queer. But Are the Dailies Used to It?
Years ago they ignored homosexual issues. Today they've crossed the thin pink line. But how far have they gone? Our correspondent surveys the mainstream papers and comes up with some surprises.
Inside the boardroom at Xtra: Toronto’s Gay and Lesbian Biweekly, Eleanor Brown takes refuge far from the raucous production-night chatter to proof a story. “How do you spell palette?” she asks without looking up. She has the focus of a Tibetan monk at prayer. Nothing short of Mike Harris declaring himself to be queer, I […]
Saturday’s Child
Paul Tough is young, smart, and worked hard for a living in U.S. journalism. Now he's come home with a new vision for Saturday Night: fine writing combined with a 'zine sensibility
Two people arrived at their new jobs at Saturday Night magazine last September. Both wore a tie and a dress shirt tucked into chinos. Both looked like recent university graduates although both were a few credits short of a BA. Twenty-nine-year-old Duff Wallis walked to Saturday Night‘s downtown Toronto office carrying an attaché case. He […]
Black Ties
After Conrad Black became head of the Southam family, Albertans feared the loss of the editorial independence of their two main dailies. They needn't worry—so long as the kids continue to earn their keep
We were in the car on our way to cover a story when the photographer looked over at me and grinned. “So, how do you like working at The Ladies Home Journal?“ I didn’t get it at first. Then my eyes widened and I must have seemed a bit flustered because he looked at me […]
