Newspapers vs. the interweb

This is a couple of weeks old, but now that I have no commute I am way behind on my podcasts. It's a great discussion though, and worth listening to. Also worth visiting the show website if you went to Carleton so you can see this photo of Chris Dornan.

Spring into action

It's finally here. Spring has hit the capital. I'm so glad to see the sun back in the sky.

I was also excited about seeing a glossy colour magazine fall out of my Citizen today. They're the people I do the bulk of my freelance work for, but I was really disappointed as a reader to see them cut the Style section years ago and then the weekend section that had housed what remained of it. Lately, most of the style pieces they run come from a newswire, and either have no photos or black and white photos. It's hard to show Spring 09's bright and bold colours in black and white. But today! A Style magazine! With fab photos from David Kawai and Ashely Fraser, two great young shooters who I love working with. Recipes from the chef at Play, vintage fashion in Ottawa and some home decor tips (that sounds pretentious..., sorry). Ottawa seems to be on the move lately, with enough hipsters to sustain a little fashion cove on Dalhousie Street and some really fantastic chefs. It's nice to see a lot of that profiled in the magazine.

And the colour. Oh, the colour. Love it. See what a deal your local newspaper is? For $25 a month, all this is delivered to your door, every day. Let's not let that die.

Three months rent or...

I don't care if these are the brainchild of Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton. They're fug.

Via macleans.ca

While we're on the subject of fashion, I will take this opportunity to announce the demise of my nose ring. I took it out a couple of nights ago after being fed up with a particularly extended period of the corkscrew part not staying in place. That always means toying with it every five minutes so it didn't protrude from my nostril.

I thought I would miss it a lot, and took a good week to consider whether I really wanted to remove it. I talked to S. about varying wild shades I could dye my hair (or parts thereof) to make up for the lost sassy factor. But I actually haven't missed my little stud at all. In fact, every time I step outside and my nose starts to run, I am thrilled not to have to deal with it.

This doesn't seem nearly as important as I write it. It was just a big deal to me. Another step on the way to being a grown-up, along with attending baby showers and funerals.

Well, the Charter *is* for Canadians...

...so I guess the freedoms guaranteed in it - like expression - aren't guaranteed for visiting UK citizens.

H/t Kady O'Malley

Update: Just realized...do I need to explain my problem with this? It's all well and good for anyone to disagree with Galloway, including a government or government spokesperson. But to deny somebody entry to Canada just because of his point of view - not because he's dangerous, at least not in any way other than to the government's position on Afghanistan - is sliding toward the wrong side of the democracy/dictatorship split. Don't we have soldiers, aid workers and government mentors in Afghanistan to give women the right to have a voice there? Aren't we in that country to get rid of a horrific group of people that, when they were in power, BEAT people for having opinions or acting in ways that countered their very specific, strict set of beliefs?

It's incredibly hypocrisy to deny a visiting speaker entry to Canada simply because he is opposed to the NATO mission in Afghanistan.

Feds consider bailing out private networks

I haven't given this any thought yet, but my first reaction is to wonder how a government could justify helping out private networks but not the public network. I imagine they would say it's because they already give money to the CBC. I imagine CBC defenders would argue the network is underfunded compared to every other public network in the world, so it wouldn't hurt the feds to throw them a few dozen million dollars.

Scratch all that. My first reaction is WAHHHHOOOOOO to anything that could help the industry. The above is my second reaction.

CBC watch

Summary: CBC won't go to radio ads; Heritage Minister James Moore says he didn't tell the Sun the CBC would be cutting 600-1200 jobs.

The CBC will announce cuts to staff at the end of the month.

I can't hear you with my hands over my ears like this

I've been ignoring this report on people not caring about losing their local newspapers. And this report by possibly the most respected journalism organization in North America, if not the world, that tells us we should all re-write our resumes and start applying for PR jobs.

(This unscientific poll says more than half of people think newspapers inform them and hold government accountable, which makes me feel a little better. Even if it is taken from a sample of Globe online readers.)

So I've just decided not to read any of them. That's a useful strategy, right?

Okay, I just peeked at the Pew report press release (the report is 180,000 pages...maybe I'll read that on the weekend) and it says the same thing all the other reports are: readership is UP...but online. And since online content is free, nobody can afford to pay their reporters. There seems to be a gathering momentum behind asking readers to pay for online content. Papers have tried this before and abandoned it because there was always somebody else offering free content. But maybe this recession will force all the companies to try it again at the same time.

Being of a generation that believes I should get everything online for free, this pains me. But not eating pains me more, and seeing my friends losing their jobs is still worse. Paying a couple of cents per article is something I can do, and I hope other people will consider it too.

Kicking ass in Canadian conservative politics

Pierre Poilievre shows there's a reason why he's successful: he gets it.

Mega h/t to Aaron Wherry for transcribing and writing this. It's a side of Poilievre you don't often see on the Hill. If you're a political junkie and you don't already read Wherry's Beyond the Commons, you are hugely missing out.

“The problem likely is that a lot of our young political activists were very good in university,” he said. “And if they could get an A on their university paper it means that they were destined to be political communicators. Why is this? Not because critical thought and learning is bad, but because in university we are taught to take five pages of content and stretch it into 20 pages of writing. When, in fact, the real skill is to do exactly the opposite, to compress that five pages into one. I think it was Rousseau who said, in a ten-page letter to a friend of his, ‘I would’ve written you this letter in one page, but I didn’t have time.’”

[SNIP]

“The voter does not have any responsibility to spend their time deciphering your Latin. They have a busy life. They are raising families. They are paying taxes. They are working their jobs. It is not their responsibility to decipher excessively verbose language. It is their job to read it and get it quick. It’s your job to help them do that.”

[SNIP]

"Often times, we in the political class, we develop our own language and we start to speak that language. We use acronyms that nobody understands, we use long, pointless sentences, we become vague. What you learn when you knock on doors is how to communicate with people who have busy lives and who don’t have time to decipher your Latin. And the great thing about knocking on doors is you have an instant and free focus group. You can tell by whether or not the voter’s eyes are glazing over if you are actually communicating. You can tell whether or not your language is persuasive to them, or just to you … You can test yourself over and over and over again.”

No sober second thought in this place

Some excerpts from Question Period yesterday. It was one of the worst I've ever heard. Legit questions and insulting answers that completely skirt the issues.

Mr. Serge Ménard (Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, BQ):

Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Justice told us that he was giving thought to the approach government lawyers should take in the case against Groupe Polygone, a key player in the sponsorship scandal. But while the minister is thinking, his lawyers are, through their silence, endorsing the extraordinary procedure the Groupe Polygone lawyers used to have journalist Daniel Leblanc subpoenaed to reveal his source.

My question is simple: does the minister approve of this manoeuvre?

[English]

Hon. Rob Nicholson (Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, we have no intention of conducting litigation here on the floor of the House of Commons. If that member would go back to his constituents, he would find that they have some serious concerns about violent crime in this country. He would be better off spending his time worrying about the safety of his constituents here and leave the litigation to the lawyers.

[Translation]

Mr. Serge Ménard (Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, BQ):

Mr. Speaker, freedom of the press is recognized in the Charter. In the civilized countries that we like to compare ourselves to, freedom of the press includes protecting a journalist's confidential sources.

How can the Attorney General, the guardian of the Charter—and does the Minister of Justice want to live up to this title?—how can the Attorney General allow his lawyers to remain silent and indifferent in the face of an extraordinary procedure that would force Daniel Leblanc to reveal enough information that his source could be identified?

[English]

Hon. Rob Nicholson (Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, the comments by the hon. member are ridiculous. Again, we will not be conducting litigation here on the floor of the House of Commons. However, again I invite this member, and this would be something new for his political party, to start worrying about victims and law-abiding Canadians and get behind the agenda that this Conservative government has presented to Parliament.

----

Ms. Olivia Chow (Trinity—Spadina, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, vulnerable migrants are being ripped off because the immigration system is dysfunctional.

In a pathetic attempt to address the problem, the Minister Immigration had to launch a PR campaign to combat fraud, but it does not address the real problem of unregulated immigration consultants. The minister is ignoring crimes committed by fake consultants who take advantage of innocent people wanting to make Canada their new home.

When will the government implement the immigration committee's comprehensive recommendations to control immigration consultants?

Hon. Jason Kenney (Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, while I appreciate the member's concern about this issue, it is an issue that, of course, the NDP will never be able to do anything about because it is a party of permanent opposition.

Having said that, I have taken into serious consideration the committee's recommendations.

When I was in India recently, I raised this matter of people being exploited by unscrupulous consultants and document vendors in parts of India and I got a commitment from the first minister of Punjab to dedicate a specific police task force to crack down on this kind of exploitation.

We intend to take further action here in Canada to improve the regulation of immigration consultants to protect newcomers to this country.

Vegan cat

I always sort of assumed cats preferred to eat meat. My cat certainly always showed a taste for spinach and cheese, but since S. and I started eating more vegetarian food, Le Chat has been rousing herself from sleep and nosing her way around some of our non-meat food.

Last night she stuck her nose into my curried lentil and sweet potato stew.



And today she tried to get at my homemade hummus. Although I think it was more the pita bread that she wanted. She has always loved bread.

Sad news for the Hill

Updated below with more links

This news hit Ottawa reporters and photographers hard today. Tom Hanson, a 41-year-old Canadian Press photographer, died of a heart attack last night.

David Akin sums it up well. You should click through to the google image page to see his work. You may not have heard of him, but I guarantee you've seen his photos (I particularly liked the ones he took when Barack Obama visited Ottawa recently). Tom was a prolific photographer, and an incredibly talented one. On top of that, he had a photographer's knack for not backing down from a subject, but was still well-enough liked that even the prime minister joked with him (click through to the Star article for that story).

I knew Tom only to chat with him at events, but it's incredibly sad for his colleagues and family. It's also a huge loss to photojournalism. I hope someone puts together a collection of his photos so we can enjoy them in some medium other than the internet.

Update: CP has a gallery up that shows Tom's versatility and talent, and they wrote an obituary.
CBC has an article with a photo of Tom, as well as a link to a photo gallery.

Industry trouble watch

This isn't good for the Canadian Press.

Quebecor is pulling out. No more CP content in any of the Sun chain of newspapers.

Work for free! Only experienced candidates please

It's been a long day. I don't even know what to say about this, except that I see things like this frequently through our old j-school jobs list-serv (a list-serv of sorts...e-mails sent regularly by a very dedicated and lovely admin assistant). Lots of responsibility...no pay. People seem to think students want to work for free.

I took out the guilty party's identifying details.

Part-time Marketing/Communications Director

[An organization] is seeking a dynamic, results-oriented marketing professional
responsible for planning, development and implementation of [the organization's] marketing strategies, and communications activities. In your role as
marketing and communications director, you will be responsible for
increasing public awareness of [the organization's] services, developing the
organization's reputation through media exposure, helping identify and
liaise with clients and sponsors and broadening [the organization's] client base.

Contract Position: 1 to 2 years (2 days per week until June/09)

Salary: to be discussed

[snip]

Duties:

§ Assures articulation of [the organization's] mandate and vision.

§ Co-ordinates all media interest and acts as [the organization's] representative.

§ Provides counsel to management team on marketing and communication.

[blah blah...snip]

Qualifications:

§ Minimum of 5 years' experience in marketing and communications with
demonstrated success preferably in the not-for-profit sector

§ Proven skills, knowledge and experience in the design and execution of
marketing, communications and public relations activities.

§ Strong creative, strategic, analytical, organizational and sales
skills.

§ Successful experience making presentations and negotiating effective
outcomes.

[Etc.]

Seriously. Two days a week of work, and they want five years experience? They might luck out an get someone with that much experience who is coming off a parental leave, or who for whatever other reasons is choosing to work two days a week. They may even have good enough timing to get someone who would normally want full-time work but due to the recession can only get part-time offers. It's understandable that a charity can't afford to pay well or can only afford to pay for two days a week, but let's be realistic about the level of candidate you're going to get. And they're highly unlikely to get someone with that much experience when they're advertising at a university.

Government efficiency

Excerpt from conversation with nameless government PR person today:

Nameless PR person: What's your deadline?
Me: 4pm
NPRP: (laughing) Good luck.
Me: I put in the request at 9am.
NPRP: I just got it now [10:54am]. And you weren't home when I called... [voice trailing off, perhaps because he realized he was calling my cell, the number for which is on my voice mail at home, and which I left with the assistant who took my message.]

The previous government that was apparently so opaque and unaccountable didn't seem to have trouble returning calls within one business day. One wonders why it's so hard for the current one to do the same.

What do you get when you make-over a Walrus?

J-source has the answer, via a Globe and Mail article.

Changes at the Canadian general interest magazine include a redesign, some staffing cuts, and making sure the cover art reflects the editorial content. This last bit threw me a little...we used to subscribe to the magazine and I never questioned the weird cover art. But of course it should match what's inside the magazine: how do you attract someone to buy your mag if you can't visually hook them with the content? I remember one issue with a really striking rainbow swirl on the cover. When I looked at the headlines on the cover page they were completely boring. The cover had nothing to do with the content.

J-source also points out that the new editor wants content driven by the editors themselves, not pitches from freelancers; that should help the magazine's content hang together better. You never knew with the old Walrus what you'd get when you opened the magazine, even based on the text on the cover page. It was unpredictable, I don't think in a good way.

We let our subscription lapse because we had subscribed after a particularly good issue but been entirely underwhelmed with the subsequent 10 issues. It was incredibly hit and miss. In a way I wanted to keep subscribing just to be able to support what seems like a good idea. I support well-paid journalism; I support Canadian magazines; I support an outlet for good writing. But most of it just wasn't interesting to me, and much of it was far too long. Maybe it's just not my style of magazine. I will check in over the next few issues though, just in case there's a reason to pick up the subscription again.

More in the industry death watch

A-News is cutting 118 jobs, and most news programming. That's 28 per cent of its workforce.

A-News Ottawa is expected to cut all of its newscasts, but will keep a morning show. I joked to someone that with those kinds of cuts the only reason to keep the station is to watch Ellen and Next Top Model; she replied it's a good place for CTV to air its primetime shows, which are getting good ratings there.

Just so we're clear, there's no longer any room for news at A. It's not a channel I watched for news, but they did provide local coverage. Any loss to community coverage is bad news.

Why we need newspapers

A former crime reporter finds his old paper lacking.

(via macleans.ca)

There's been lots going on with media companies the past week. Lots of bad.

CanWest watch (also at Maclean's.ca)

CTV is projecting a $100 million loss, and selling two southwestern Ontario stations

CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning did a series on the Ottawa Citizen, available one piece each morning here

But CBC is in trouble too, and wants some government cash to help.

Some people wonder whether blogs will replace newspapers. But David Simon, who wrote the Baltimore piece, disagrees.

"Well, sorry, but I didn't trip over any blogger trying to find out McKissick's [a police officer who shot an unarmed man] identity and performance history. Nor were any citizen journalists at the City Council hearing in January when police officials inflated the nature and severity of the threats against officers. And there wasn't anyone working sources in the police department to counterbalance all of the spin or omission."

Blogs are great for keeping in touch with friends, having a creative outlet and sometimes (carefully) venting frustration. I've even seen great debates in blog comments. But a blogger with a day job simply will never have the time to do what crime reporters are supposed to do. The catch being that newspapers need to make sure crime reporters have the time too.