What Men Want
Unable to survive in print without running advertorials, Canadian men's magazines escape into the online realm. But is that what men really want?
In 2006, the advertising team for watch manufacturer Swiss Army met with the representatives of Toro and suggested that the Toronto-based men’s magazine publish an article showcasing the brand. Swiss Army was an occasional advertiser, but when editor Derek Finkle found out about the idea, he shot it down. That’s not what Toro was about. […]
Mr. Fix-It
Freelance journalist and Globe and Mail columnist Craig Silverman spends his life tracking mistakes and missteps in the press. His new book, Regret the Error, highlights some of journalism's most egregious blunders. Review reporter Erin Tandy discusses what's so right about being Mr. Wrong
Erin Tandy: What first got you interested in corrections? Craig Silverman: There was one in particular that inspired me to look more into the topic. It’s the one listed in Regret the Error’s introduction, from the Lexington Herald-Leader in 2004, where they apologize for not covering the civil rights movement 40 years previously: “It has […]
Letter From Russia
Fluff abounds in a country where the politics is anything but straightforward and journalism is still a dangerous profession
Outside my Soviet-style apartment a rhythmic ghraavk-ghrrraaavk-ghravvvk fills the air: someone is shoveling snow. Inside, some Russian anchor, whose name I’ll never remember, fills a small television screen to announce the results of yesterday’s parliamentary election. President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party won, but the correspondent briefly alludes to complaints about violations at the polling […]
Please Do Not Adjust Your Set…
The Real News Network is up and running online, but as for its proposed television programming, well, we're going to have to wait till summer comes along...
The large loft space at 720 Bathurst Street in downtown Toronto easily swallows the equipment and facilities for The Real News Network’s (TRNN) more than two-and-a-half dozen employees. A three-camera studio set-up is tucked away in a far corner opposite the newsroom. The black shades are drawn to eliminate the sun’s glare on the handful […]
Mr. Sports
When Milt Dunnell died this month, Canadians lost a great sports columnist, one who told stories with the class befitting a man known as the sports editor of Canada
It was the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty eight, and never a more decisive victory had taken place in the ring of battle since Napoleon wiped out the Third Coalition at Austerlitz. In the first round, Mike Tyson walloped Michael Spinks, felling him in a flash, or 91 seconds if you want […]
Social Conscience + Making Money = Successful Business Magazine Strategy
The editors of the six-year-old Corporate Knights and the recently launched unlimited are confident their mix of corporate social responsibility and profit will appeal to the growing pool of millennial workers
With three days to go until the third issue goes to press,unlimited editor Dan Rubinstein isbusy. Hunched over his computer, he does the last edit on the cover story for January-February’s “Transformation” issue. The story is a feature on 24-year-old millwright Billie Lyons, a woman who symbolizes the gender shift in the trades industry. Rubinstein […]
The Journalism Responsibility Unit
The Ontario Court of Appeal’s decision to allow a new libel defence, “responsible journalism,” opens the door for more stories in the public interest—or does it?
Libel plaintiff lawyer Ronald F. Caza was arguing a motion in an Ottawa court when he received the email from his junior lawyer, Jeff Saikaley. Caza knew exactly when the decision would be made. With 30 seconds of downtime, he checked his BlackBerry and read an email saying something along the lines of, “New defence […]
Sex Bazaars, Porn Stars
Taboo subjects are the last things you'd expect to read in a new South Asian lifestyle magazine, but Desi Life is set on smashing stereotypes
Pick up the October–November issue of Desi Life magazine and you’ll see the headline “Boy Wonder” and a smiling 13-year-old, who happens to be a golf champion, lying in a pool of golf balls. But a quick look inside the magazine reveals decidedly more provocative material: the experiences of five gay men in South Asia, […]
