Tough times for newspapers are not just bad for journalists, they are bad for society. Former Toronto Star publisher John Honderich suggests five models for rescuing public interest journalism in an era of revolutionary change.
“Imagine … turning on your home computer to read the day’s newspaper! It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds…”Hat tip to the NY Times’s “Bits.”
Budget cutbacks and travel restrictions have led to the cancellation of Magazines Canada’s highly regarded annual School for Professional Publishing, reports D.B. Scott on his blog, Canadian Magazines.
That’s what it would take to save every American newspaper in perpetuity as non-profit organizations, says Zachary M Seward at Nieman Journalism Lab. But he argues the important question isn’t “How much?” It’s “Should we?”
The gay advocacy organization Egale has formally protested the use by CBC sports broadcasters of the word “pansification,” in stories about whether fighting should be banned in hockey.
What would it take to endow a “very healthy newsroom”? Steve Coll, writing in the online edition of The New Yorker, calculates that The Washington Post could run on the proceeds of a $2 billion fund.
Officials with a Manitoba government agency asked a provincial court to ban media from attending any part of the custody case involving a seven-year-old Winnipeg girl sent to school bearing a swastika, reported The Canadian Press. CP noted that child welfare workers removed the girl and her brother, age two, from their home and are…
If the New York Times can’t hold its own, who and what can? The latest reports show profits down sharply, it’s selling its sports holdings including the Red Sox, and one media watcher discusses the possibility of the whole ship sinking — by May.
Canada’s “community press” got a boost in the federal budget, and the two national newspaper associations are pleased. The budget included $30 million over two years for community newspapers and magazines, said a report on a community newspaper site.
If Thomas Jefferson was right that a well-informed citizenry is the foundation of our democracy, then newspapers must be saved, write two financially savvy thinkers at Yale…