Media Monday Edmonton: Update #9

Here is my latest update on local media stuff:

• Karen Unland has also started doing “media roundups” on her blog. Here is her latest update.
• On May 28, the Alberta Media Production Industries Association held its 2011 State of the Industry Update. There’s an MP3 of the update and a PPT on “Stimulating Audience Demand”.
• St. Alberta’s Our City magazine has a new publisher. John Roberts, former publisher of the Saint City News, was announced on Twitter on May 18.
• A couple of weeks ago, the Edmonton Journal announced some changes to the layout. City Plus is now known as City and Region, and there’s a new weekly gardening section. The final restructuring of the print edition was announced this week: the Books section has expanded into the Sunday Reader, and What’s On is now part of the regular Friday Movies section.
• Global TV Edmonton announced recently that they will be broadcasting the Morning News seven days as week, starting in September. From Tim Spelliscy’s note announcing the change: “That’s 43 hours of local news every week on Global Edmonton, more than all of our competitors combined.”
• Here’s a nice “thank you” to the media from Marty Forbes for the way they handled the Slave Lake wildfires.
• Edmonton Journal reporter Jodie Sinnema has been named the winner of the 2011 Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians award for medical journalism. She was nominated by University of Alberta Hospital’s Dr. Felix Soibelman.
• Big congrats to The Unknown Studio on reaching the milestone of 50 episodes! Here’s to 50 more!
• Journal photographer Ryan Jackson won two multimedia awards in the News Photographers Association of Canada annual pictures of the year contest for 2010.
• Here, in a PDF, are the finalists for the 2011 Alberta Book Awards. The winners will be announced on June 11 in Calgary.
• The Montreal Gazette and the Victoria Times Colonist recently introduced paywalls. Edmonton Journal publisher John Connolly said that while the Edmonton Journal isn’t part of the pilot, "we will be watching the results with interest."
• Spacing Magazine is getting ready to launch its first national issue, and is celebrating with a cross-country tour. They’ll be in Edmonton on June 22, with a launch event at the Art Gallery of Alberta. Yours truly will be one of the panel members talking about some of the best places in Edmonton.
• The Journal won the International Newsmedia Marketing Association’s Public Relations and Community Service award it was nominated for back in March, and finished second in the Marketing Campaign category for Taste Alberta.
• Congratulations to all of the nominees in the 2011 Digital Alberta awards. The awards ceremony was held this evening in Calgary.
• So for the corporate challenge tug-o-war competition, the Journal decided to field a mostly female team. And then they named it the Power Puffs.
• Is it just me, or has the merger of SEE and Vue been pretty straightforward thus far? I mean I’m sure there has been turmoil within, but from an outsider’s perspective, it has been fairly “quiet”. No big articles on the merger in the new issue of Vue. Fish Griwkowsky wrote a nice piece in the final issue of SEE though.
• Here’s the Edmonton Journal newsletter for June 2011.
• It’s too late to take advantage of the offer now, but I was intrigued by the edmontonian’s recent decision to sell some simple ads for their upcoming June 12th episode of the edmontonian presents. I hope it turns out well! Speaking of, you can see the third epsiode named “Spring” here.

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