Media Monday Edmonton: Update #205

Here’s my latest update on local media stuff:

• Karen and I announced Taproot Edmonton last week, and we’re pretty thrilled with the initial response! Taproot is our attempt to figure out what the future of local journalism looks like. We’d love for you to join us by becoming a member!
• At the CAJ conference last week, it was mostly doom and gloom for local news. “I think local news is so screwed,” said one panelist. Obviously Karen and I disagree!
• Trish Audette-Longo and Brian Gorman wrote about the importance of journalism to a community, as demonstrated by the Fort McMurray wildfires. “Journalists are storytellers, and that is very important work. It involves more than just gathering facts and repeating them. It is about selecting, organizing and interpreting those facts so they make some kind of sense.”
• Reporters from Fort McMurray Today left their home on May 3 but haven’t missed a single day of printing. “With the help of our generous hosts at the Edmonton Journal, Sun and Examiner offices, we have been able to carry on with our jobs and bring some sense of normalcy back to our daily life.”
• “A baby girl, born just days after her parents were forced to flee a wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alta., will forever bear the name of a CBC reporter who helped document the disaster from the front lines.” Baby Briar was named after CBC reporter Briar Stewart.
• Sportsnet is donating $400,000 to NAIT to fund “scholarships as well as support multimedia and digital media training, development and production.” More details will be announced tomorrow afternoon.
• If you missed last week’s Journalist Interrupted panel, here’s a liveblog from J-Source.
• Sam Brooks is moving on from Capital Ideas. His next adventure will be revealed later this summer, and it appears it’ll be with a startup of some kind!
• Congrats to Capital Ideas on winning the “Best New Concept to Incubate Products or Ideas” category at the INMA Global Media Awards.
• Episode 41 of the Seen and Heard in Edmonton podcast features Jess Holt, “the wry wit and graphic designer by trade who offers a raw, insightful look at life as the mother of twins on Grace & Champ.”
• Marty Forbes was in New York City recently and caught up with former Edmontonian Pat Kiernan.
• Edmonton-based Allarco Entertainment owes creditors $115 million and has been granted bankruptcy protection. The company owns Super Channel and Shine FM.
• Stanley Burke died of a heart attack Saturday at the age of 93. Early in his career he worked for the Edmonton Bulletin. “His biggest scoop was applying for and receiving driver’s licences for a dog, a goat and a duck (the province reformed its licensing law after that embarrassment).”
• Bell Media is looking for a part-time casual writer/web reporter. The deadline to apply is June 3.
• CKUA is looking for a Digital Content Editor “to participate in planning, creating, coordinating, monitoring and evaluating CKUA’s web and social media content.” The deadline to apply is June 8.

Mayor Don Iveson getting ready to scrum

And here is some slightly less local media stuff:

• Here are Linda’s latest social media notes. She linked to Buffer’s blog post which shares some lessons from studying over 16 million posts on social media.
• At the CAJ conference last week, “a new fellowship aimed at improving the skills of Indigenous journalists” was announced. Full details on the program are expected within the next few months.
• Albertans will soon have an alternative to Telus and Shaw when Ontario-based VMedia launches in Edmonton and Calgary on June 15.
• Huffington Post Canada celebrated its fifth birthday last week. “We’re now publishing 1,500 pieces of content a day in 10 languages on our platform, and we have more than 35 million followers globally on Facebook. Here in Canada, we’re the most popular digital news-brand with Canadian readers.”
• HuffPo aren’t the only ones publishing a crazy amount of content per day. The Washington Post posts an average of 1,200 things per day, and even the New York Times and Wall Street Journal post quite a bit.
• This video shows you the “most complete and functioning Gutenberg Press in the world.” Neat!

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!

You can see past Media Monday Edmonton entries here.