This is one of the best journalism ideas I’ve heard all year: The U.S. Stony Brook University proposes to hire and train 50 laid-off journalists to teach a new discipline, “news literacy.” They’ll begin this fall at dozens of U.S. campuses, teaching non-journalism majors about the importance of news to democracy. A media giraffe piece…
Jon Stewart, the comedian on the Daily Show whose satire has achieved the bizarre reputation of being some of the most responsible U.S. “journalism,” has lately attacked the performance of the financial media, especially CNBC, as incompetent in their reporting of Wall Street, the 2008 economic collapse and sub-prime mortgage crisis. Stewart and CNBC host…
Reader’s Digest Canadian Operations announced the lay-off of Peter Stockland, VP and Editor-in-Chief, English Magazines. The company said in a news release Stockland’s position will be replaced by his former French counterpart Robert Goyette, who received a promotion to VP, Book Editorial and Editor-in-Chief, Magazines. RD said the move is part of its recession plan…
Canwest Global Communications Corp. won a reprieve on some of its debt problems until April 7. The company will use the time “to negotiate borrowing terms on its debt with senior lenders and said it was working with noteholders and other stakeholders to recapitalize the company,” reported the CanWest-owned National Post. The company had a…
The online magazine The Tyee is running a series on journalism by Steve Anderson, co-ordinator of Canadians for Democratic Media and the Stop the Big Media Takeover campaign. Anderson’s first piece, “Why Big Media Is Failing,” blames Canada’s media crisis on “the highly concentrated media ownership in Canada combined with the deepening bottom-line mentality of…
The Canadian Press, already embroiled in restructuring, took a major blow from Quebecor Inc., which announced it will pull out of the news co-operative in mid 2010 to cut costs, and grow its own in-house news agency, said reports. Quebecor — owner of the Sun Media and Osprey chains — is CP’s biggest media member…
Canadian Press reported that award-winning CP photojournalist Tom Hanson, “a fierce champion of journalistic rights whose sometimes brusque manner belied a devoted husband with a gentle soul,” has died suddenly after collapsing while playing hockey. The Canadian Press story — an elegant and sad elegy by James Mccarten — is here.
CBC reports on Alberta’s new censorship law, Bill 19, “New Alberta film bill creates movie czar, inspectors.” Cinema owners and movie distributors in Alberta are upset, said CBC, because the law would “create a team of theatre inspectors and a new movie czar with indisputable authority” that could act on the “whim” of the government.…
Rogers Communications vice-chairman Phil Lind told the CRTC that a proposed small levy to support online Canadian content is illegal, a view later echoed by Shaw Communications, reports The Globe and Mail, setting the stage for a possible court challenge.
According to a report in the Globe and Mail, Rogers Publishing CEO Brian Segal has told the National Magazine Awards Foundation to scrap this year’s program honouring magazine writers, photographers, illustrators and editors, because there is “no money for any activities outside of producing magazines.”