Here is my latest update on local media stuff:
- Don’t miss this GIG City profile of Peter Brown. “Radio is where you have the time to speak as yourself and develop your ideas. It’s a medium that rewards creative imagination.”
- K97 held a fundraiser on Wednesday for the family of Zaidee Jensen, the woman who died after she fell off of an LRT platform. The effort raised $11,600.
- Have you checked out Trent Wilkie’s interview project? He has interviews with Gregg Beever, Adam Rozenhart, Fawnda Mithrush, and Scott C. Bourgeois.
- Also from Trent: Have you SEEn my words? In an update, he says that Vue Weekly is working to find all of the old SEE Magazine stories.
- I stumbled across the first issue of Business in Edmonton magazine the other day. Looks like a Calgary initiative that has spread north.
- Global Edmonton’s meteorologist is now on Twitter! Follow Nicola Crosbie at @nicolaweather. Her profile also says “soon to be launching as morning meteorologist on 630 CHED and iNews880”.
- The Edmonton Journal was nominated in the “Breaking News, Medium” category of the 2012 Online Journalism Awards for its coverage of the Hub Mall shooting. The winners will be announced in San Francisco on September 22.
- Ryan Tumilty has joined Metro Edmonton. You can follow him as @MetroRyan.
- It’s official: Cam Tait is no longer a full-time employee at the Journal. He’ll start writing a once-a-week column in a few weeks.
- Tammy Karatchuk has completed her ten month term at Shaw TV. She wants to remain in Edmonton – hopefully she can!
- I have to say Adam, I like food pictures on the Internet too. “Democratizing things like publishing and photography are more beneficial than they are detrimental.”
- Mike McGuire is no longer with CISN, though no one is entirely sure why.
- You can look forward to new stuff on the Oilers Nation Twitter account. No longer will you find just links to blog posts. Hopefully?
- I see that CTV Edmonton has been experimenting with live-tweeting during the news. Has anyone noticed that? Thoughts?
- Tom Radford will be honored at the 2012 David Billington Award Luncheon in October. “Tom Radford’s career spans over forty years in the Canadian television and film industries as a Writer, Director, and Producer. He is a two time Gemini winner and born to a Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper family that came to Alberta in 1905.”
- Global Edmonton’s morning news expanded to 5am on August 27th. Way too early for me!
- 92.5 JOE FM has a new logo and is switching formats as well. Jonny Sullivan is now doing the morning drive show with J’Lyn Nye.
- I’m still kind of amazed that the Journal is putting money into Elizabeth Withey’s work chronicling the birth of her child and her first year of parenthood, but now they have decided to turn her stories into an ebook.
- Longtime Corus employee Les Sortland died on August 17 at the age of 87. He worked at Power 92 until relatively recently, and was the “Les” in the station’s popular “Les is More” catchphrase. “He was acknowledged as the only Octogenarian in the company.”
- Bob the Angry Flower reflects on 20 years. Don’t miss it!
- Beacon News publisher Markham Hislop has some advice for aspiring journalists. He says they need to deliver “value” to the organization. He cites movie reviews and other things that keep readers coming back for more as creating value. Unfortunately, he equates that questionable definition of value with being “ a good reporter” and making the paper better. My advice to aspiring journalists? Take Hislop’s words with a grain of salt. Better yet, run in the opposite direction of anyone who thinks value is about eyeballs or you’ll soon find yourself in a race to the bottom.
- Here’s a guided tour of the Alberta Block which has been CKUA’s home for over four decades:
- “Premier Alison Redford, centre, her daughter Sarah, left, Minister of Culture Heather Klimchuk, and Speaker of the Alberta Legislative Assembly Gene Zwozdesky, right, examine an Edmonton newspaper from the early 1900’s that was retrieved from a time capsule buried at the Alberta Legislature building in the same period. The opening of the capsule was part of the Alberta Legislature building’s 100th anniversary celebrations in Edmonton September 2, 2012.”
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 
Thanks for mentioning the food photo post, Mack. It really floors me how in denial people are about wanting to see photos of food. I mean, that’s one of the biggest conversations I have with people: food – where have you eaten lately, what did you have, was it good and where do you want to go and eat now?
As a younger person with no children, perhaps you don’t realize the enormous number of “mommy blogs” out there (many with tons of corporate sponsors and ads because they have many many readers) that do exactly what Liz Withey and the Journal are doing, ie. “chronicling the birth of her child and her first year of parenthood”. It wouldn’t surprise me if her columns, online at least if not in print form, drew a large number of readers from the demographics who read these other blogs, and that the Journal is trying to capitalize on that.
Sorry Jen, nice try, but I really don’t think it has anything to do with being a younger person and no children at the moment. I raise the issue precisely for the reason you mentioned: if everyone is doing it, what value does the Journal add? What’s so great about having that kind of content, content that you can find anywhere, in the newspaper?
Free-fall: Adjusted for Inflation, Print Newspaper Advertising Will be Lower This Year Than in 1950
http://mjperry.blogspot.ca/2012/09/freefall-adjusted-for-inflation-print.html