Custom Brokers
Custom publications may seem like the dark side. But as these marketing books adopt higher journalistic standards, Jacqueline Nelson says it’s getting harder to tell the difference between them and consumer magazines
I’m going to say something kind of incendiary,” Ilana Weitzman says carefully. The editor-in-chief of enRoute, Air Canada’s in-flight magazine, knows she’s tiptoeing through landmines. “Look at fashion magazines,” she says, referring to her old job as editor of the Montreal-based fashion title Strut. “The idea that content is completely free of any interested party influence in […]
Solo Mission
Last summer, CBC took Search Engine off the radio and moved it online, turning the program into a one-man show. Daniel Kaszor asks host Jesse Brown about the transition to the web and his complicated relationship with his audience
During the June finale of Search Engine, listeners learned the radio program had been cancelled. Sort of. The show, which launched in September 2007 on CBC Radio One and focused on the effect of technology in public life, would now air exclusively on the web. And instead of a team producing the program, host Jesse Brown […]
Undercover Blues
After going incognito for her Maid for a Month series, Jan Wong faces a deceit and invasion of privacy suit. So, asks Carolyn Morris, does undercover journalism need to clean up its act?
While cleaning a five-bedroom house in a wealthy Toronto neighbourhood, Jan Wong had to pee. Venturing into the 11-year-old son’s private en suite bathroom, she was disgusted by the un-flushed toilet and the urine on the seat—some of it dried. In her 2006 Globe and Mail series “Maid for a Month,” Wong cleaned other people’s toilets, floors […]
Strung Along
Are local journalists and fixers in hot spots cut loose by our news media?
It is Graeme Smith’s 15th trip to Afghanistan. Though famous for his intrepid journalism, this time he’ll be spending more of his nights under a ceiling of impermeable cement. The Globe and Mail’s Afghanistan correspondent answers my e-mail from inside a concrete bunker. “We’re under rocket attacks again,” he writes. “Thank God for Wi-Fi.” But […]
Feuding with the Family
A year after it launched, the independent Carleton FreePress closed down in October. As Christal Gardiola discovered, that’s left a paper owned by the powerful Irving family as the only one in town
Bob Rupert saw it coming. In mid-October, the Carleton FreePress editor knew his time with the paper would soon be over when he discovered the company was having trouble paying its printing bills. Sure enough, the next Monday afternoon, owner Dwight Fraser walked into a story meeting and revealed that the New Brunswick weekly would […]
The Gatekeeper of Grammar
As CBC's media language advisor, Judy Maddren advises her colleagues on pronunciation, grammar and usage. Marit Mitchell asked her how she makes the rules--and when it's okay to break them.
It’s hard to maintain Canadian English. Even that paragon of virtue, the Oxford Canadian Dictionary, is flagging in its efforts to uphold the language’s integrity. Faced with competition from free online dictionaries, Oxford University Press laid off all four staff members in its Canadian dictionary division in October, including esteemed editor-in-chief Katherine Barber. Fortunately, Judy […]
Out of Style
With economic uncertainty forcing consumers to reconsider how they spend, Molly Doyle discovers that fashion magazines are changing the way they dress up their stories. But that may not be enough to keep them publishing
Fashion journalism hopes to help transform the “fashionista” into a “recessionista,” as a recent New York Times article put it, by highlighting the recent trend towards staying stylish on a tighter budget. Here in Canada, for example, the cover of Fashion‘s November issue features a big, bold pink-and-white sell line that promises, “Luxury for less— when to spend, […]
Taking Cover
There's no law against police officers posing as journalists. They say it's part of how they do their job. But while it may make their work easier, it does the opposite for reporters. Now, journalists are taking on the law
It was a simple assignment: when the third in a string of pipeline explosions shook the northern British Columbia community of Dawson Creek this Halloween, Tamara Cunningham was sent out to cover it. A former reporter to the Dawson Creek Daily News, Cunningham realized as she drove up to the site that access wasn’t going to […]
Back to School
Sheridan College hopes its Canadian Journalism for Internationally Trained Writers program will help new Canadians get bylines and jobs. But in an industry so dependent on connections, communication, and reputation, the program has trouble living up to its lofty premise
Teenaz Javat, 39, came to Canada in 1997. She had accumulated five years journalism experience in her native India and in Pakistan. She has a masters in economics. But when she came to Canada, because journalism is not a nine-to-five job and her kids were young, it was her personal choice to put her journalism […]
Paper Dreams
Indigo, Canada's largest magazine seller has set new environmental goals for the publications on its shelves. But in an economy that makes green paper mills sparse, will magazines toe Indigo's company line?
On November 1, 2007, Kim Latreille received an email from Barnes and Noble, the American equivalent to Canada’s Indigo Books & Music, announcing the company’s plan to display magazines made from recycled paper more prominently than other titles. Latreille, the group director of production for St. Joseph Media, which publishes eight major consumer magazines, including Toronto […]
