Media Monday Edmonton: Update #18

By Mack D. Male · September 12, 2011 at 10:45pm

Here is my latest update on local media stuff:

CTV Edmonton launched its expanded local news coverage today with the addition of CTV News At Five and CTV News at 5:30. Carrie Doll anchors the 5pm newscast while Daryl McIntyre anchors the 5:30pm newscast.
The St. Albert Gazette is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and they’ve posted a digital version of the first ever edition for you to check out.
Also celebrating an anniversary is Avenue Edmonton – the September issue is the 5th anniversary edition (you can see the digital version here). They have a special section that looks at how Edmonton has evolved since 2006. Their list of the “five most entertaining battles of the last five years” contains three media-related battles: “Vue Weekly vs. See Magazine”, “Ed Stelmach vs. Dave Cournoyer”, and “Chris & Karleena Perry vs. Everyone Else” (they’re the couple that wrote a letter in the St. Albert Gazette arguing against a Habitat for Humanity project).
Congratulations to Wade Sorochan – he’s the new host of Edmonton This Week. Christopher Webster at the City did a good interview with him.
Too bad I missed this: Sonic 102.9 did a tour on Sunday for #yegmusicclub.
Have you checked out Metro Edmonton’s new Live Wire? It’s “an opportunity for readers to contribute to the city’s #1 free daily news source and one of the fastest growing newspapers in Canada.” Basically they mention a few stories they’re working on, and you email any input you have to the managing editor.
The Bear’s controversial “Win A Wife” contest attracted all sorts of coverage – even the Huffington Post wrote about it. I’ll give Gig City’s Mike Ross the last word on this one: “The real winner in all this is the Bear radio station, which has attracted a storm of attention over this contest – which is certainly in the running for the most outrageous and offensive local radio station stunt ever. Yay, Edmonton.”
Here’s a nice write-up on Rawlco, which according to the latest PPM radio ratings has the second ranked station, Now! 102.3. Combined with Up! 99.3, the company’s share of the local market is 17.0, third to Corus’ four stations at 25.2 and Newcap’s three stations at 17.8.
Here’s another media write-up in the Journal, on TSN’s Natasha Staniszewski. As the article notes, Edmonton is “fertile ground for TSN when it comes to talent,” with Bryan Mudryk, Gord Miller, Ryan Rishaug, and Darren Dutchyshen all spending time here early in their careers.
In case you missed it: here’s my interview with Jeff & Sally on the end of the edmontonian, and here’s my look at the statistics the site accumulated over its run.
CityTV’s new show Canada’s Got Talent will be in town starting on Wednesday for three days of auditions. The lineup starts at 6am at the Mayfield Inn & Suites.
According to the Edmonton Journal’s September 2011 newsletter, QR codes in the paper have been scanned “close to 35,000 times” since the June 2010 launch, which I wrote about here.
The presenters for Wednesday’s Pecha Kucha Night 11 have been announced. The lineup looks great, but I’m particularly looking forward to David Papp’s #BirdCam Social Media Experiment and Karen Unland’s talk titled “What Journalism Needs Now.” While you’re waiting, check out Karen’s latest Edmonton New Media Roundup.
Congratulations to Edmonton’s own City and Baby, named to the top spot in Alberta’s Best Mama Bloggers! Edmonton blogs accounted for 7 of the top 10 blogs.
Here’s a nice big write-up on Marty Forbes. He’s certainly a busy guy! Here is his latest column on our busy media landscape.
On September 7, Barb Wilkinson wrote in the Journal about the new community newsroom, slated to launch next week. She wrote: “Later this month, we’ll announce the name, and tell you who will make up the local advisory board that will help us shape this project. We also expect to launch the community newsroom pilot site.” Too bad the name was actually announced the day before that article! It’ll be called The Bridge, and I am happy to have been selected to take part.
Via Sharon, here is Arthur S. Brisbane’s interview with Jill Abramson, the first woman to serve as top editor of The New York Times since the paper’s founding in 1851.

Here’s a recap video of Pecha Kucha 10, courtesy of Telus TV:

You can follow Edmonton media news on Twitter using the hashtag #yegmedia. For a great overview of the global media landscape, check out Mediagazer.

So, what have I missed? What’s new and interesting in the world of Edmonton media? Let me know!

Edmonton Notes for 9/11/2011

By Mack D. Male · September 11, 2011 at 11:39pm

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

People around the world gathered to mark September 11th, and here in Edmonton it was no different. Brittney has a great recap and collection of photos from the Edmonton Firefighters Memorial. The Edmonton International Airport also held a memorial today. The Journal has a good collection of coverage here.
The City of Edmonton has secured external counsel and expert analysis as part of a process to ensure due diligence in the pursuit of an agreement on the downtown arena. In total over the course of 2010 and YTD 2011 the City has spent $1.1 million on consultants related to the arena project, with another $500,000 budgeted.
The Alberta Liberals chose former Tory MLA Raj Sherman as their new leader yesterday.
The Capital Region Board approved a $10 billion public transit plan on Thursday.
Could it be true? Is the end in sight for the empty lot on the corner of 104 Street and Whyte Avenue? Apparently the final phase of the remediation process is now set to get underway.
More than 113,000 students are now back at school. How are you handling the increased traffic volume?
The Capitals lost on Sunday but still lead the best-of-seven NAL final 3 games to 1. They square off again on Tuesday evening! Go Caps Go!
Elise Stolte’s summer series Living on the Edge wrapped up this past week. Here’s the Journal’s summary and closing thoughts.
Edmonton’s resale housing market saw higher sales but constant prices in August compared to a year ago. The average selling price last month was $370,438, down about 0.2 per cent from $371,187 a year ago.
According to new stats, the City is receiving fewer complains about aggressive panhandlers this year than it did in 2010.
On Tuesday the City Auditor released a report describing a joint investigation into the sale of counterfeit ETS monthly transit passes. Approximately $29,000 in revenue was lost as a result of the counterfeit passes.
Tens of thousands of Edmonton poplar trees are in danger of being wiped out by bronze leaf disease.
The Edmonton Police Service is going to be changing the look of its police cruisers. The mostly white and blue cars will now be a retro black and white.
City Council recently shifted $5 million from its financial stabilization fund into an Edmonton filmed entertainment fund, which some people are really not happy about. The idea is to lure more movie makers to the city.
Here’s a link from September 1 that I wanted to capture: City Council Advances Downtown Revitalization and City Safety.

Let’s look at some events coming up this week:

On Tuesday at lunch time, YWCA Edmonton’s second annual Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event takes place at Churchill Square. If you’d like to sponsor me, you can do so here!
Inside City Hall at the same time, the City is hosting another discussion on The Way We Green, this time about the success and municipal opportunities of German renewable energy policies.
If you’re downtown later that evening, don’t miss the Patio Flash Mob happening at 105 Street and Jasper Avenue!
The 11th edition of Pecha Kucha Night takes place on Wednesday evening at the University of Alberta.
Thursday is the kickoff for the 2011 United Way Campaign.
On Thursday evening Edmonton Girl Geek Dinners returns with S2E2 at Lux!
Friday evening is the grand opening of the Capital Theatre at Fort Edmonton Park.
But you’ll be downtown at What the Truck?! 2 right? Our second food truck extravaganza takes place on 102 Street south of Jasper Avenue. Don’t miss it!
Saturday is of course Community League Day all across the city. DECL is hosting its 6th annual CornFest at Beaver Hills House Park.
There are Big Bin events taking place on Saturday and Sunday!
For more upcoming events, check out ShareEdmonton. You might like the calendar view too.

Photo by Jonathan Janke

What I remember about 9/11

By Mack D. Male · September 11, 2011 at 3:36pm

Leading up to the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks I have been thinking about what I remember about that day. It has often been said that 9/11 is among a handful of major events that divide time into “before” and “after”, an event for which everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when it happened. But already the details are becoming fuzzy for me.

September 2001 was the start of my first year at the University of Alberta. I’m not sure why I thought it was a good idea, but I had a lot of early classes that year. On that particular Tuesday, I had a computer lab at 8am. I had arranged to get a ride to campus with my girlfriend at the time. My Grandma, who I lived with, would drop me off at my girlfriend’s house and her mom would drop us off at the university on her way to work. I remember we were heading north on 50th street just past Whitemud Drive when we first heard on the radio about the two planes crashing into the World Trade Center. I don’t remember the exact time, but it couldn’t have been long after the second plane crashed into the south tower. For some reason, I seem to recall the person on the radio talking about “two small planes”.

By the time I got to my computer lab, it was obvious that they were not small planes and that something big was happening. I don’t remember doing any work in that particular lab, but I do remember sitting toward the back of the room, trying to find out more online. I distinctly remember thinking that the Internet seemed unusually slow that morning. I was probably trying to load CNN or the New York Times – it’s funny to think about it now and realize that Google News didn’t yet exist, not to mention Twitter, Facebook, or any of the other places I frequent for news today.

Not long after that lab, I met up with my girlfriend and we went back to her house. We pretty much sat in front of the TV for the rest of the day, like most people I suspect. I went back to my Grandma’s house around dinner time, and I remember she was doing some painting. I remember thinking it was odd that she wasn’t watching TV, but I suppose by that time the news was starting to get repetitive. It would take days, weeks, and months before we learned more about what happened.

And that’s about all I remember. It’s more than I remember about most other days ten years ago, but somehow less than I think I should remember, if that makes sense. I often wonder if I’d remember more or less if I had tweeted and blogged about it like I would today (passive vs. active media use).

Two years ago, Sharon and I went to Washington, DC on vacation. One of our stops was Newseum. They had a 9/11 exhibit featuring the September 12, 2001 front pages of newspapers from all around the world. They have a similar collection from today.

the edmontonian: statistics

By Mack D. Male · September 10, 2011 at 8:46am

When I received the email from Jeff & Sally informing me that the edmontonian would soon be ending, I was shocked. I didn’t see it coming. Yesterday was the final day, and I’m still sad about it! I know they’ll be back at some point, but the edmontonian itself is no more. I’m glad I got to interview the duo about the decision, but I also wanted to do a tribute post of sorts. Fortunately, I knew right away what it should be – statistics!

The following statistics cover the edmontonian from the very first post on June 15, 2009 up to but not including the announcement on August 29, 2011.

Number of posts: 1572
Number of words written: 532,595
Number of comments: 3865

That works out to an average of 2.8 posts per day. Here’s what the breakdown looks like per month:

As you can see they posted slightly more at the beginning and then settled into a steady rhythm. The most posts came in July 2009 (perhaps due to the airport debate) while the fewest came in December 2009. The monthly average was 58.2 posts.

Here’s the breakdown by time of day:

Most entries were posted between 10am and 12pm, with another spike between 3pm and 4pm. A significant number of the edmontonian’s posts were headlines, which Jeff often posted mid-morning, so the graph doesn’t really surprise me. This word cloud shows you just how much of a fixture the headlines were at the edmontonian:

That was generated by including all 1572 post titles. If you remove those two words, you get this word cloud:

I didn’t realize how prominently the time of year was featured until I went through this exercise. It shows up in the tags as well. Very interesting! The average length of a post title was 29 characters or 5 words, with the longest being 30 words (fittingly that post was among the shortest for content, containing only images). This one was also quite long at 28 words.

One of my favorite things about the edmontonian was their willingness to link to other stuff. They linked a lot. In total, they posted 17,416 unique links! Of those, 2217 were links to their own stuff. A significant chunk of the rest went to local media. Here are the domains they linked to more than 100 times:

edmontonjournal.com (3170)
theedmontonian.com (2217)
edmontonsun.com (1551)
cbc.ca (983)
edmonton.ctv.ca (768)
630ched.com (587)
metronews.ca (457)
globaltvedmonton.com (349)
youtube.com (345)
shareedmonton.ca (342)
imdb.com (297)
yeglive.ca (272)
inews880.com (266)
seemagazine.com (241)
twitter.com (238)
vueweekly.com (224)
edmonton.ca (204)
calgaryherald.com (196)
edmontonexaminer.com (191)
facebook.com (181)
thegatewayonline.ca (168)
vancouversun.com (121)
en.wikipedia.org (110)

The average length of a post at the edmontonian was 2109 characters or 399 words. The longest was 2135 words. Here’s what a word cloud of all the post content looks like:

All Edmonton, all the time.

Without a doubt, the edmontonian was good at generating a discussion about the things happening in our city. I think it’s safe to say that a lot of that discussion probably took place off the blog (they’ve posted more than 8500 tweets) but I’m still impressed by the number of comments they amassed (an average of 2.5 per post). I would have loved their numbers during my first three years of blogging! This post had the most comments at 96.

These statistics are interesting, but of course they don’t reflect all the passion and hard work that Jeff & Sally have put into the edmontonian over the past three years. They’ve set the bar high for local blogs!

Media Monday Edmonton: the edmontonian goes out on top

By Mack D. Male · September 5, 2011 at 7:08pm

As I mentioned last week, this Friday will be the final day for popular local blog the edmontonian. Editors Jeff Samsonow and Sally Poulsen have decided to move on to new things, and they assure us that “this is not a sad decision” for them. I think it’s safe to say that it has been a sad decision for the rest of us though, as the recent outpouring of support for the duo has shown! I had lots of questions about the decision so I’m glad Jeff & Sally agreed to an interview, which we conducted via email.

In the inaugural post back on June 15, 2009, Sally wrote: “Jeff and I have some pretty grand ambitions for this bad boy, and we couldn’t be more excited to get the ball rolling.” Looking back now, Jeff thinks they met those ambitions. “I know we wanted to have a conversation with people about Edmonton, we wanted to highlight interesting and fun people, businesses, and stories, to raise the level of discourse in a "news" site’s comments section, and create our own content.” Sally agreed, and expanded on his thoughts. “I do think we were both surprised that it grew legs as quickly as it did, and that because we’d never really had any goals beyond "make ourselves laugh," "initiate a conversation," and "make news easier to understand," I think we may have lost sight of where we were going once or twice.” They feel that the edmontonian achieved its goals however, and that’s part of the reason it is shutting down.

I wondered what surprised them most about the experience of creating and maintaining the edmontonian. “How seriously people took us as a news outlet was a bit of a shock,” Sally said, noting that people would call with stories and invite them to events. “That has always struck me as funny.” For Jeff, it was “the amount of stuff we’ve done.” With more than 1500 items posted to the site, they’ve certainly had a busy three years. “It reinforced for me that Edmonton is full of good stories,” Jeff said. “And it said that passion, from anyone, is what’s going to create content. A paycheck won’t crank out post after post about the city, it’s going to come from individuals who want to tell stories and explore their community.”

One of the things I have always loved about the edmontonian is the humorous side of the blog. Sure I love reading Jeff’s more serious commentaries, but the funny stuff really made it unique, in my opinion. I asked them if there was anything that they tried that bombed, and Sally wrote: “There was that time we tried to keep the municipal airport open. That didn’t really work out like we’d hoped.” Thinking about posts that made me laugh, I asked who will write about abandoned couches now? Jeff says to tweet him if you have couch photos to share! “Seriously, make sure you @ me on your couch photos.”

I asked Jeff & Sally to offer some advice to other Edmontonians who might want to start a blog. “Life is incredibly short,” Sally said. “Just go for it.” She also suggested that you “be for something instead of against.” Jeff noted that it’s really simple to get started. “The great thing about the Internet, and all of its many blogging, video, audio, and photo tools is that no story has to go untold.” He too says to just get started. “Buy your domain, install WordPress, and start documenting your version of Edmonton.” Jeff would welcome new voices to the local blogosphere and beyond. “There are so many great stories in a city Edmonton’s size, and so many different takes on everything, that there’s plenty of room for more media presence.”

Not that what Jeff & Sally have accomplished is easy. It takes a lot of time and effort. I wondered what the hardest part of creating and maintaining the site was. “I would say finding the time to get to events and talk to people for full stories, so it wasn’t always daily Headlines posts,” Jeff replied. With full-time jobs, doing interviews during the traditional 9-5 schedule wasn’t always possible. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get frustrated about the fact that we’d be writing this stuff on off hours, putting in all this time and energy, and then see people who made their living as reporters "borrow" our ideas,” Sally added.

Given my interest in digital archiving, I wanted to know if the site would just disappear on Friday or if it would remain online. “It will live where it is,” Sally assured me. “We can’t promise forever and ever, because it costs money to keep it there, but for the foreseeable future.” Jeff says they’ve just renewed the hosting for another year, so you’ve got time to take screenshots if you want!

There have been lots of sad tweets, comments, and messages about the decision to shut the site down, and I wondered what Jeff & Sally thought about that. “I had expected some reaction,” Jeff said, “but I wasn’t ready for the amount of conversation, the number of people that seemed to genuinely be sad to see us go. It was way more than I was ready for, and I choked up a couple of times.” Sally agreed. “I think we knew how passionate we were about the edmontonian, but it was the first time that I ever thought, wow, maybe people do know how much we care.”

Photo by Brittney Le Blanc

So what’s next for the duo? They’ve always struck me as the kind of people who are happiest when they are creating something. Like the TV show. “It was a stupid amount of work, and very much our love letter to the city,” Sally said. While confirming that they have “a couple of half-baked ideas” in the works, Sally wouldn’t share any clues. “I plan on taking many naps, and also we’re buying a couch. So that’s pretty exciting.” Perhaps thinking ahead, Jeff said that “choosing the next project out of our hat of ideas will actually be the next big step.” He was also careful to set the right expectations, however. “I’d hate to say "we’re building Edmonton’s largest pancake" and disappoint folks if that wasn’t the next project we actually undertook.” Sally chimed in with her trademark wit: “So, to review, we’re building Edmonton’s largest pancake. And buying a couch.”

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to take a bite while sitting on that couch. Best wishes to Jeff & Sally in whatever they decide to pursue, and thank you for three wonderful years of Edmonton stories!