• J-Source

    Hyperlocal news touted as solution in face of failing MSM

    Great column about a closed conference where the future of news was discussed. “One of the favorite parlor games in the blogosphere these days is to bash newspapers. We are often compared to tyrannosarus rex — desperately clinging to our newsprint while we slip into the La Brea Tar Pits.” Lots of talk about hyperlocal…

  • J-Source

    Loss of local television stations demonstrates lack of vision

    The closure of a local television station in Brandon, Man., continues to demonstrate the lack of vision by business-types high up in news organizations. On the surface, it is hard to argue saving an unprofitable enterprise. No one is saying that here. However, the opportunity to innovate and convert the rich resources at the station…

  • J-Source

    Reviving local news

    There is a good article in Inside Higher Ed regarding the Renaissance of local news coverage. It focuses on the recent partnership between business and journalism schools to offer hyperlocal news to communities. The growing trend of hyperlocal news, a form of highly localized community news and information, is particularly significant. As news organizations search…

  • J-Source

    Exclusive stories gain prominence at The Toronto Star

    It is interesting to note over the past week, the Toronto Star is featuring “exclusive” stories, along with investigative and enterprise stories, on the front page of their print edition. The editors are also profiling follow-up stories to previous investigative stories, ensuring audiences are aware of the impact of the initial work. While some might…

  • J-Source

    In Journal: The remaking of newswork

    In a special issue, Journalism examines how transformations in the media business are impacting working conditions and labour practices in the journalism workplace. Articles include: “Compressed dimensions in digital media occupations: Journalists in transformation,” by Amy Schmitz Weiss and Vanessa de Macedo Higgins Joyce “Token responses to gendered newsrooms: Factors in the career-related decisions of…

  • J-Source

    Public supports watchdog press: Pew

    Although recent Pew surveys in the United States have documented a serious decline in the public’s perception of news media’s performance in areas like accuracy and neutrality, the role played by the press in monitoring and criticizing government and politicians continues to be regarded as a valuable and important public service.

  • J-Source

    Canwest did not intend to be road kill

    “We don’t intend to be one of the corpses lying beside the information highway,” says Israel Asper, chairman of Canwest Global.” The CBC archives captured what family head Izzy Asper said as the Aspers helped themselves to a vast plateful of Canadian journalism just after the takeover, back when media concentration (and American sub-prime mortgages…

  • J-Source

    Kinsella on Canwest journalists

    Blogged Warren Kinsella: “My sincere hope, naïve as it may be, is that the amazing journalists and editors at Canwest hold onto their jobs, and that they emerge stronger than before. “Someone needs to be thrown under the bus for this mess, but it’s not the working journalists, that’s for damn sure.” Hear, hear.

  • J-Source

    Canwest on the stock exchange

    There are lots of questions about Canwest and the future of its many media operations, after much of the company was granted creditor protection Tuesday. But here’s one question that’s fascinated me as shares of Canwest Global Communications  zipped up and down as though on a bungee cord. Most recently they went up to .235…

  • J-Source

    Canwest units under creditor protection

    The Ontario Superior Court of Justice granted most of the Canwest Global Communications organization protection from creditors at mid-morning Tuesday, ending years of uncertainty about Canwest’s massive debt load. The company, which closed closed in trading Monday with its shares at .235, announced the court order. A Globe and Mail story said…