Category
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Journalism
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Offshoring hits journalism
Offshoring hits journalism, with Reuters moving analysis-based editorial positions to India from the U.S. and Europe. For some comparison, creating three Indian positions was cheaper than keeping one of the original ones
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Catching-up with the news
In the weeks since I’ve posted anything substantial here, it seems almost every notable blog has redesigned. (Where’s this one’s? Still sitting, unfinished on a test server.) There’s also been an election called in Canada, and a number of interesting developments in the news world. With my dad’s recovery progressing quite nicely, it’s about time to kick this blog back into gear and start covering these events.
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Blogging the CAJ national conference
David Akin is blogging the CAJ national conference in Vancouver this weekend, covering sessions he’s leading and attending. There are already posts on Kirk Lapointe and obligatory blogging and journalism session
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Wire evolution
Newspapers and portals have traditionally swallowed the wire copy whole, allow design to overwhelm the origin of content. Increasingly though, those stories are becoming commodities, and that threatens the wires’ business model. Mark Glaser explains how the industry is reacting to these changes
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World Press Freedom Day
Today is World Press Freedom Day, and there’s no doubt why this is needed
Latest Postings on Journalism
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New York Times free again
The New York Times is dropping its online paid-subscription plan two years after launching it (and four after The Globe and Mail launched the model The Times used). The spin is the online advertising boom change the rules of the game. However, advertising revenue would be a pittance compared to the potential revenue generated through annual subscriptions.
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Trouble at Toronto papers
Trouble has been brewing at Toronto Sun for a while, and was already apparent while working at Sun Media’s CANOE in the late 1990s. On the weekend, my current employer, The Globe and Mail wrote a surprisingly sympathetic piece on troubles at Toronto’s tabloid.
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The New York Times flirts with paid subscriptions
Rumour has it that the The New York Times is planning on doing what The Globe and Mail did (partially) four months ago: introduce a subscription fee to read it online. Unlike here in Canada, the critics are quite vocal.
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Registering the Star
As promised, the Toronto Star is encouraging its users to register — in method sadly reminiscent of another paper’s attempts
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Post out
As promised, the National Post will be pulling out of CP June 30 because the paper can’t afford its dues. Since its establishment 1917, the news service has grown to include more than 600 Canadian newsrooms and news agencies from around the world and its style guide and spelling guide is the standard for Canadian writers, journalists, and editors
Latest Postings on Newspapers
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50 top (foreign) magazines
Unfortunately, Canadian magazine stands are crammed with American titles, forcing out quality domesitc books. But, if you have to buy foreign titles, the Chicago Tribune has compiled a list of its favourite fifty magazines. Wired top’s the list, no doubt helped by its surging ad revenue.
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New designs for the Walrus and the W3C validator
The Walrus almost managed to turn an oops into a marketing ploy when one of its newsletters yesterday pointed readers to the development site. After realizing what happened the magazine quickly sent out an explanation (in fact, it was sent twice):
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National Magazine Award finalists
The National Magazine Award finalists have been announced, and once again, Toronto Life leads the pack with 25 nominations. The Walrus is seventh, with 11 nominations, well behind Toro (17), and just ahead of Maclean’s with its meagre eight nominations (as a point of comparison, its French sister, L’actualité is second with 23 nominations)
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Mr. Walrus
MediaBistro profiles Mr. Walrus, Ken Alexander. Not a lot of new news for Canadian magazine junkies, but it is interesting to read an American publication parsing the idea of a Canadian magazine
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Magazines in Canada
Wondering how Canada’s magazines are doing? The Montreal Gazette has nice overview of the magazine industry (thanks again, Steph).
Latest Postings on Magazine
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Podcasting down, video up
One of the topics I’ve been speaking about over the past year has been online news trends, and there’s a few recent pointers from The Editors Weblog that speak a bit more in-depth about two of my themes: video and podcasting.
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CBC: deal reached
After being told to settle their dispute, and given a 48-hour deadline, the CBC management and the Candian Media Guild (CMG) did just that last night. The Great CBC Lockout looks to be over. Finally.
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Blogging the CBC lockout
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CBC locks out employees
This morning, I woke up and flipped on CBC Radio One as I normally do. Today, though, I did it primarily to see if the inevitable didn’t happen. But it did. The voice on the radio told me the CBC management had locked-out its 5,500 or so members of the Canadian Media Guild. The Mother Corp. wants more flexibility in its hiring practices by hiring more contract workers. Already, almost a third of the employees now are currently working on a contract basis.
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Blogging success may endanger the indie Web
Thanks to the American political conventions’ decision to accredit some bloggers (which in turn was helped by a leadership campaign by Dean Edwards), the mainstream media (and the Internet Explorer development team) has finally accepted the format. (The media also seem to recognize blogging will force them to improve the online efforts.) Although pundits might herald CNN’s partnership with Technorati, the network’s founder offers a warning. Ted Turner wrote a lengthy article in Washington Monthly decrying how big media. The article argues the consideration has crushed independent voices in the broadcast world, and although the online world still seems free, we’d be wise to watch for similar indicators.
Latest Postings on TV
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Remembering two Canadian media greats
This weekend Antonia Zebisias broke her blogging silence to remember Sid Adilman, one of Canada’s best entertainment journalists. He died this past Saturday and the paper he spent so much time at, the Toronto Star, remembers him well.
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CBC: deal reached
After being told to settle their dispute, and given a 48-hour deadline, the CBC management and the Candian Media Guild (CMG) did just that last night. The Great CBC Lockout looks to be over. Finally.
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Blogging the CBC lockout
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CBC locks out employees
This morning, I woke up and flipped on CBC Radio One as I normally do. Today, though, I did it primarily to see if the inevitable didn’t happen. But it did. The voice on the radio told me the CBC management had locked-out its 5,500 or so members of the Canadian Media Guild. The Mother Corp. wants more flexibility in its hiring practices by hiring more contract workers. Already, almost a third of the employees now are currently working on a contract basis.
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Podcasting CBC Radio 3
Well, although I’d like to take the claim for it, it likely has more to do with the podcasting being the meme-of-the-moment: CBC has unveiled a CBC Radio 3 podcast.
Latest Postings on Radio
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The False Idol: Technology
Technology seems to offer a lifeline to the hypochondria afflicting the journalism industry, but the real cure may be something simpler.
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Online journalism still needs to learn
Day two of the Online News Association’s conference has had, at least for me a much more engaging set of panels and conversations, starting with Holovaty’s through to integrating interactives into the site (which featured a tremendously strong panel). The day closes with what is dubbed the “Superpanel;” after is the ONA awards.
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Holovaty at the ONA conference
Adrian Holovaty started the day with his session on evangelizing reporting and making data in news articles available for machine parsing (as evidenced in ChicagoCrimes.org). Although I arrived late (something about the Queen St. streetcar trying being diverged, and partly a result of a late night hunt to find a Gypsy jazz band and a Yahoo party), I’ve seen his talk on this before (and he is a good speaker), but it is heartening to see that it was incredibly well attended.
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Midday at ONA, Day 1
So far, Toronto Hydro is failing me, hotel rates are too high, but I do have a recharged laptop (I still can’t believe there’s no free WiFi at an online journalism conference). Thankfully, I’ve been able to catch-up with a lot of people, some of which live in my city, or I’ve just met. And that was one of my hopes in attending this conference.
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ONA conference starts
Arriving for an early start at the Online News Association’s conference here in Toronto, and I have, so far, have run into colleagues I’ve worked with, might have worked with, and could be working with. Apparently the rare, and heavy Toronto fog has closed the airport, preventing some from arriving, but still it is quite packed.
Latest Postings on Online Journalism
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Digesting the lay-offs
More on the CANOE cuts, which includes actually almost all the editorial people. Reuters says the “the sites will be used as a ‘showcase’ for Quebecor’s other media properties”. Why?
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Online media gutted
As rumoured, Quebecor cut 67 jobs from its Netgraphe division—including CANOE—late this morning. Reportedly, among the 67 jobs:
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Final days for CANOE?
Quebecor reportedly plans to restructure CANOE by eliminating original editorial content and almost half the staff.
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CANOE Money: R.I.P.
CANOE decides to replace its established business brand, the result? A truly Canadian effort.
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Canadian traffic boast
Further example of how misrepresentative Media Metrix’ numbers can be:
Latest Postings on CANOE
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Dow Jones buys MarketWatch
One of the sites I work on was heavily modelled on MarketWatch; in part because the former site’s editor worked on the latter, but also because the latter’s approach to covering the markets works.
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Meet Sympatico/MSN, register at the Globe
The Canadian Web is changing: Sympatico is MSN and get ready to register at the Globe and Mail’s sites
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Bought by CHUM
Get one redesign done, and dive into work on another. Difference is this time, I like the design. More details to in the coming months (and, no, it still is not this site)…
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Working for Asper
An email landed in my inbox today pointing to a wonderfully ironic story: not only does Leonard Asper love convergence, he’d also like to own the newspaper I work for
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Dropping “AOL”; ROB loves PKP; analysis of market analysis
Is convergence dead or not? Even as AOL Time Warner drops the “AOL” from its name, the business press are fawning over PKP and the converged Quebecor Media’s IPO.
Latest Postings on Convergence
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New York Times free again
The New York Times is dropping its online paid-subscription plan two years after launching it (and four after The Globe and Mail launched the model The Times used). The spin is the online advertising boom change the rules of the game. However, advertising revenue would be a pittance compared to the potential revenue generated through annual subscriptions.
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The New York Times flirts with paid subscriptions
Rumour has it that the The New York Times is planning on doing what The Globe and Mail did (partially) four months ago: introduce a subscription fee to read it online. Unlike here in Canada, the critics are quite vocal.
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Bye-bye BugMeNot
Well, it was bound to happen: BugMeNot has vanished from the Web, apparently ending the first big public attempt to circumvent online registration walls. MetaFilter has some eulogies and speculation.
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Willingness to get personalized
A “personalization technology platform provider” recently surveyed some Americans and found that a large majority wanted personalized content online. Not surprisingly, their desire dropped when asked if they’d be willing to supply information about their preferences. When asked about supplying demographic data, interest dropped even more.
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Registration pro and con
Registration is a buzzworthy topic these days, and there’s some fresh evidence for and against it.
Latest Postings on Subscriptions & Registration
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Online ad boom
Dow Jones has revealed the real reason for the MarketWatch purchase: the financial site was bought to ease a potential ad inventory crunch. The company spent six times MarketWatch’s 2004 revenue to be sure it gets some of the U.S.$10 billion online advertising spending.
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Big ads and subscription
Salon.com’s made what could be a bold step. By
Latest Postings on Advertising
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Love-ing new media journalism
Mr. Holovaty points to a days-old site from Gary Love on new media journalism. The site looks to be the kind I was first hoping to create with this one; that is a content-rich resource on the unrealized potential in online journalism. Love has a lot of experience in the field, but has decided not to tie his name to the project (depsite using his personal’s site design). The result is a site whose pseudo-anonymity weakens the integrity of the well-thought out articles. Still worth a bookmark, though
Latest Postings on Journalism Resources
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