Media Monday Edmonton: Update #14

Here is my latest update on local media stuff:

• YegNews.com is barely a month old, but it is already on to its second editor. Scott McKeen announced last Monday that he is moving on from the site. He will apparently stay on as an independent contributor, though he has not written anything since July 7. In fact, nothing was posted to the site between July 7 and July 18. Dave S. Clark is the new editor of YegNews.com. Let’s hope he lasts a bit longer!
• West Edmonton Local is still going strong, however! Check it out if you haven’t lately.
• Also last Monday, the Edmonton Journal finally revealed new details on its community newsroom initiative. They are looking both for new ideas, and for individuals interested in joining the “local advisory board”. Email community@edmontonjournal.com by July 31 if you’d like to get involved.
• Here is Karen’s Edmonton New Media Roundup from last week, and here’s her latest.
• Global Winnipeg’s weather anchor Craig Larkins is joining CTV Edmonton’s new morning show. Here’s his tweet about the news. Friday was his last day on air in Winnipeg.
• Shaw’s launch of the New Shaw Movie Club (PDF) on July 15 was widely reported as an attempt to compete against Netflix. The news reignited discussions about network neutrality with Shaw forced to clarify that the new service would in fact impact bandwidth caps for users.
• MediaMag has an entry on Hero, the new magazine launched by the Stollery Children’s Hospital back in April.
• Another new magazine launched this month: WE Magazine. A publication of the United Way of the Capital Region, it aims to “inspire people to come together to make a lasting difference in our communities.”
• A post on the Puget Sound Radio forums indicates there are changes afoot at Astral Radio in Alberta (The Bear, Virgin Radio, and Team 1260 are the local stations).
• Edmonton Journal reporter Jennifer Fong is heading across the pond on August 14 for grad school. That explains the new opening in the Arts & Life section at the Journal. Looks like the going-away-cake was tasty!
• Apparently the Twitter race is heating up for PC leadership candidates here in Alberta.
• An Edmontonian has been traveling the world, posting a video of himself drinking a Coke in each location visited. Sounds like an expensive but memorable trip for Duane Perera. Makes one wonder about the value of travel media when individuals document their trips like this, doesn’t it?
• The primary argument made for why Edmonton should continue to host the Indy is the media exposure we get around the world. I decided to look at Google News for an indication of how successful the event was at that (take these numbers with a grain of salt, they change nearly every time I do the search). Since July 18, there have been 889 articles posted about the topic, according to Google News. Roughly 268 of those appear to have been simply about Power winning the race.  Narrowing the field to just United States-based media, the number drops to 388 articles. If you try to restrict it to just Alberta-based media, the number of articles is 154 (though I think that is low, considering the Edmonton Journal accounts for 103 articles and the Edmonton Sun accounts for 72). Of course not all media sources are in Google News, and I’m sure supporters will quickly point out the TV coverage, but I think the results are interesting nonetheless.

I was away all of last week so I wasn’t paying as much attention to Twitter as usual, but I still didn’t notice as many #yegindy tweets as I expected. That said, there was some great coverage online. fusedlogicTV was recording video and posting photos over the weekend. Here’s a glimpse of what their AutoMojo show captured:

Today, Microsoft released Avatar Kinect on Xbox Live. I just had to give it a shot!

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!