Subsidize or die?
Journalists on social media are crying to the government to save their profession—is this the only solution?
“Should the government get involved?” It’s a question that’s been floating around ever since Canadian journalism decided to spiral down into a black hole of unemployment and goodbye columns. The argument: the loss of print media will create a void where important stories will go, along with the very basis of democracy—accessible information and accountability. […]
The Unbearable Whiteness of Canadian Columnists
Old white men are dominating opinion pages in newspapers across the country, but a shift toward a more diverse roster may be easier said than done
As the editorial pages editor at the Ottawa Citizen, Kate Heartfield oversaw 11 columnists until she resigned on November 18. Only one of those columnists isn’t white. The absence of opinion writers of colour means the paper may become a publication just for white people, admits Heartfield, who worries about the relevance of the conversation […]
How Glen McGregor and Stephen Maher broke the robocalls scandal
The journalists who uncovered Elections Canada’s investigation into fraudulent calls that misdirected voters in 2011
This story has been updated from a previous version. By Lisa Coxon After a few glasses of Côtes du Rhônes, Stephen Maher asks if we can turn the recorders off—one faces him; the other, Glen McGregor. We’re on the patio of Métropolitain, a restaurant just below Parliament Hill that’s a popular after-work hangout among political […]
Dubious Disctinction
Three lifted passages in an award-winning story forced the press to get off its laurels and reexamine its ethics
Stunned silence filled the meeting room. The 11 governors on the board of the National Newspaper Awards were in a daze. Three of them-Bill Peterson, executive editor of The Star Phoenix in Saskatoon; John Honderich, editor of The Toronto Star; and John Paton, general manager of the Ottawa Sun-had just resigned. They were protesting the […]
Just another Saturday Plight
Saturday Night, the magazine that hasn't made a penny for more than 40 years, has always been a hard sell.
Saturday Night, the magazine that hasn’t made a penny for more than 40 years, has always been a hard sell. And now that the venerable but perennially money-losing magazine is operating on a controlled-circulation basis, few media forecasters are predicting an easier economic future. At the magazine’s glitzy launch party last October at Toronto’s Royal […]
