Here’s my latest update on local media stuff:
- Edmonton Journal columnist Paula Simons wrote a plea on Facebook to support Postmedia. “Cancelling your subscription to spite Postmedia won’t help you to get better local reporting,” she wrote. While I agree that there are still some fantastic journalists at Postmedia, including Paula herself, I don’t see how one can argue for giving Paul Godfrey more money to continue to run Postmedia newsrooms across the country into the ground. If the most recent Postmedia buyouts and layoffs have you upset or concerned, know that more are on the way. By all means invest in local journalism, but perhaps it’s time to support a new alternative.
- Be sure to check out our latest Taproot Edmonton story on pedestrian deaths and what we can do about them, written by Jeff Cummings, Stephanie Dubois, Karen, and myself. If you want to support what we’re trying to do, join us here.
- After 41 years in the business, many of those with the Edmonton Journal, December 16 will be Cam Cole’s last day at Postmedia.
- Here is Gigcity’s Mike Ross on the gutting of the Journal’s arts section. “This is such a sad yet familiar scenario.”
- Edmonton journalist John W. Murray has been selected for the inaugural Aboriginal Investigative Journalism Fellowship. He produces Acimowin at CJSR and is “a Mi’gmaq citizen of the Natoaganeg (Eel Ground) First Nation in New Brunswick.”
- The Rebel hosted a rally here in Edmonton at the Legislature on Saturday to protest the proposed carbon tax. While there were some concerns raised about The Rebel crossing the line into activism, those were quickly overshadowed by someone in the crowd yelling “lock her up!” – an incident Ezra Levant dismissed as “just a light-hearted moment, a way for the crowd to blow off steam.”
- The local music community is hosting a send-off for Sandra Sperounes at Rocky Mountain Icehouse on December 27. “There are few people in Edmonton’s music community who haven’t been touched and supported by our greatest media cheerleader and friend. Come have a drink and tell her thank you.”
- Episode 55 of the Seen and Heard in Edmonton podcast features Dave Rae, “the comic, sketch comedian and improviser who takes any side of any debate and always wins on The Devil’s Advocate.”
- Congratulations to local podcast The Expats on being featured in CBC’s travel-themed Podcast Playlist.
- Network Media Group Inc. has acquired the rights to the Hacked podcast to adapt it to a television series. The podcast was co-created by local podcasters Scott Francis Winder and Jordan Bloemen. Congrats!
- Join 92.5 FRESH RADIO, CISN Country 103.9, 630 CHED, iNews880 and Global Edmonton for the 2nd Annual “Tower of Toys” event happening December 8-10 at West Edmonton Mall.
- 95.7 CRUZ FM has launched a new Christmas fundraising campaign called Load the Limo.
- The deadline to apply to be the new editor-in-chief of The Yards is December 10.
- Rough year for CTV Edmonton’s studios. Earlier this year a truck hit the station and took them off the air, and on Friday the studio was evacuated forcing the cancellation of the late night news.
- From Vintage Edmonton: ITV Edmonton Commercials from 1979.
Photo by Premier of Alberta
And here is some slightly less local media stuff:
- Marc Edge argues in the The Tyee that “a mindset shift is…needed among both federal regulators and journalism educators” to treat news media as “a public service of enormous social and political importance.”
- The Outline has launched. It’s “a new kind of publication for a new kind of human.” Haven’t looked at much of the content yet, but the homepage certainly brings me back to my Geocities and Tripod days!
- 10 million digital subscribers: that’s the new goal for the New York Times. As of September, they had 1.6 million but they have been growing by as many as 10,000 per day since Trump won the election.
- Voice of San Diego has one of the most successful membership programs and now they’re going to share what they’ve learned with others through a new initiative called the News Revenue Hub.
- Craig Silverman has been named media editor at BuzzFeed. He’s going to remain in Toronto, where he was formerly the head of BuzzFeed Canada.
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 