Here is my latest update on local media stuff:
- From David J. Climenhaga: “The newspaper industry was officially pronounced a dead man walking on Sunday, July 8, 2012.” I think it may have happened before that, but whatever, the story is that the Journal is going to be eliminating another 25 jobs. (Thanks to Stuart for the first tip.)
- I saw a few people ask what happened to Gary James over the last couple weeks. I’m not sure what he is up to now, but Media Mag reports that he was relieved of his duties at JOE FM (replaced by Jonny Sullivan from The Bear in Ottawa) along with Boyd Leader.
- The Edmonton Experiment launched Capital Ideas on July 3. Described as a place where “Edmonton’s entrepreneurs help each other by sharing what they know,” the new initiative held its first event at the Edmonton Journal the following day. You can see video of the event here. The next event takes place on Wednesday. Here’s some behind-the-scenes from Karen.
- Full Disclosure from Lowetide. Roughly half a million pageviews per month and just under 40,000 uniques – impressive!
- The Journal wants to know how you get their product – let them know by filling out this survey. And don’t be surprised when they erect the paywall later this year!
- Speaking of the paywall, that’s all I could think about after reading this post from Stuart Thomson. Well, not the only thing that came to mind. In the post, Stuart joins the parade of columnists arguing against Journatic, a company that provides local news outsourcing. He uses that to explain that “award-winning journalism” comes from “working a beat, meeting lots of people and eventually putting it all together into a “hard” story”. Or, you know, from giving yourselves an award. He declares: “We have to be wary about listening to tech geeks with no experience in journalism, who see a lot of micro trends but rarely see the big picture.” Right, because innovation often comes from those with blinders on. Sigh.
- Gig City has a profile on K-97’s Melissa Wright: she’s more than just a rock chick!
- I missed this last month, so belated congratulations to Inglorious Hipsters on your one year anniversary!
- The Journal is running a new ad campaign featuring Journal personalities.
- Some sad news: Edmonton writer Darren Zenko died of cancer a couple weeks ago. Early in his career he was at DJ at CJSR and was a staff member at The Gateway. He later wrote for the Journal, Vue Weekly, and See Magazine.
- Another blog bites the dust: I Heart Edmonton is calling it quits after three years. Thanks for all the great content Emil!
- It was really sparsely populated at launch, so I’m glad to see the EJ Events app has more data now. It’s great also that the Journal is experimenting with new things like the app, though this is concerning: “Robin Schroffel, the Journal staffer who works eight hours a day behind the scenes of the events app uploading and moderating content…” Really? Eight hours a day?!
- Metro Edmonton is looking for a Senior Reporter/Photographer. The deadline to apply is August 5.
- Global Edmonton’s Laurel Clark wrote about her trip to work with journalists in Liberia.
- Want to work on Alberta Westworld magazine? The AMA is looking to hire a writer for the publication.
- Did you miss The Unknown Studio’s live blog from BT Edmonton on Friday? It’s hilarious, and was a great way to cap off Bloggers Week.
- Have you seen The Newsroom, the new drama from Aaron Sorkin? I watched the first episode, and thought it was okay. Have been enjoying blog posts about the show more: The Differences Between The Newsroom And An Actual Newsroom and On Bullshit: The Newsroom to name just a couple. But probably my favorite comes from Jeff Jarvis: Can we reimagine TV news (please)?
- From Paula Kirman, another item I missed last month: The 7th Annual Astral Caring for Kids Radio Broadcast took place on June 14, raising funds for the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation. Radio stations 104-9 Virgin Radio, 100.3 The Bear, and The Team 1260 took part, interviewing children and families who have been impacted by the Stollery and encouraging listeners to donate. A total of $350,000 was raised.
Check out more photos from the radiothon here.
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!
MasterMaq's Blog 
The Survey on the Journal website is a study in bad survey technique. Too long, repetitive and I have no idea how they will distill data that reflects a real picture from it.
Hi Mrs. Spit,
We had two goals:
– collect as many postal codes as possible in order to run them through our demographic software and create a profile for each. We need to confirm our hunches as to who is reading what
– see if there was a difference in audience between each platforms. We structured the questions the same because of this.
I apologize if you didn’t think it was a worthwhile use of your time if you took it, however I feel it will meet our goals just fine.
I also found it somewhat repetitive. Two or three times running through all of the sections and all of the places I read? I hung in there though and finished.
But I am, like Mack, waiting to hear about when and how much for the paywall.
Didn’t even know it was bloggers week. Who dreamed that up?
🙂
V