Here is my latest update on local media stuff:
- Congratulations to Stacey Brotzel – 15 years at CKEM-TV is pretty impressive! “I’ve been here so long I made up my own name: Day One’r. I walked into this building days before A-Channel launched.”
- Halloween will be Omar Mouallem’s final day at Avenue Edmonton. He has decided to freelance and write full-time. Best of luck Omar! Check out my write-up on Omar from November 2011 here.
- Starting tonight CBC Edmonton is expanding its late night news with a 30-minute broadcast at 11pm.
- Could you meet 14 new people each and every day for an entire year? Brittney Le Blanc has challenged herself to do just that, with the 5K365 project. She’ll try to meet 5000 people before September 15, 2013. “It’s going to be a crazy year.” You can say that again!
- You may recall from earlier this year that Leduc is getting a new radio station at 93.1 FM. The name of the station will be The ONE FM and while they still haven’t launched yet (“this fall” is the target) they have a new website, Twitter, and Facebook page. They’re also looking to hire an Account Manager as well as an Administration/Traffic Manager.
- Here’s the story behind the Edmonton Journal’s front page photo of Peter Lougheed.
- 24 hours has launched “a fresh new look” with a new layout, new logo, and new sections. Too bad you still have to use the ridiculously annoying E-Edition to read anything online.
- Postmedia newspapers all switched their commenting systems to Facebook last week. I’m a fan of this change, not because I think it’s the only way to eliminate trolls and manage the community, but because it makes it much easier for me to comment. I definitely respect the arguments against the change however, articulated well by David Eaves and others. “In the end, I think the quality of engagement and of discussion at Postmedia will suffer.”
- Linda wrote about mommy bloggers in her last column. It’s a big and growing business!
- Congratulations to the St. Albert Leader which last week printed its one millionth copy!
- Here’s another article on CKUA’s new home.
- Did anyone watch the premiere of “Hail Mary” on Saturday? It’s a reality TV series on Citytv that follows a group of football players trying out for the Edmonton Eskimos.
- Do you have what it takes to be the next Regional Writer in Residence? “The Metro Edmonton Library Federation (Edmonton Public Library, St. Albert Public Library, Strathcona County Library and Fort Saskatchewan Public Library) are inviting applications from Edmonton and area writers for two positions as Regional Writers in Residence for the period of January 3 to December 31, 2013.”
- The next Capital Ideas Edmonton event will take place on September 26. Details and RSVP here!
- This could be interesting: “Arbitron Inc. and comScore announced today an agreement to develop the first-ever five-platform measurement initiative that would provide an unparalleled view of changing consumption of video, audio and display content across radio, television, PCs, smartphones and tablets.” Yeah, there’s a lot of marketing speak there, but any evolution in metrics is a good thing.
- BuzzFeed has been doing some really, really intriguing things. Last week they “aqhired” Ze Frank. It’ll be great to see what he creates.
- I’m continuing as a member of the Edmonton Journal’s Community Advisory Board for one more year. We had our first meeting last week – meet all the board members here.
- Vintage Edmonton Journal stickers!
- Global Edmonton’s Gord Steinke has finally joined Twitter!
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 
apparently CTV Edmonton will be going HD very soon – maybe this week… but will Bell TV carry it? what channel will it be on? will it replace the CTV Calgary HD channel? who cares?!?! =p (i do… i love HD)
Mac… I saw Hail Mary this week, and wrote a preview on Gig City. It’s excellent, a real quality program from Edmonton’s Anaid Productions. Too bad CITY dumped it at 10 pm on Saturday, but it’s certainly worth PVRing. (On another matter, I enjoyed the Examiner’s story on the new CKUA building, and its reference to “big band musician” Glen Gould.
Some excellent points in that anonymous comments article. I also believe that engagement is the best way to raise the level of debate. There will always be a few trolls you’ll have to ban (perhaps a few times from a few different emails) but conversation is going to make the debate better.
It will also make the stories and opinion pieces better because journalists won’t be able to simply print and move on, they’ll have to explain and justify the story.
And this point is one I suspect Postmedia never considered:
“And journalists clearly understand the power dynamics of our society and
the important role anonymity plays in balancing them this is why they
use anonymous sources to get scoops and dig up stories. So how
newspapers as an institution, and journalists as a profession see
narrowing the opportunity for those most marginalized to challenge power
and authority in the comments section as being consistent with their
mission, I cannot explain.”