Media Monday Edmonton: Update #235

Here’s my latest update on local media stuff:

• Karen was on Edmonton AM last week to talk about Taproot Edmonton!
• Some of Edmonton’s most well-known Twitter users shared their “social media golden rule” with Danielle at The Social Pen. Great roundup!
• Congratulations to Omar on the big book news to start 2017!
• CBC Edmonton’s Mark Connolly and his wife Alyson opened their recently renovated home to the Journal’s My House Beautiful series.
• Jana Pruden is curating a new series at Metro Cinema called The Bad Girls Movie Club.
• Former Global Edmonton account executive Kyla St. Gelais took a buyout in July and has since joined Signpatico Outdoor Inc.. Her colleague Lenny Adrichuk, who spent 8 years at the Edmonton Journal before joining Global Edmonton in 2010, has also joined Signpatico.
• Jennifer Hollett, Twitter Canada’s head of news and government, has been announced as the first keynote speaker for the upcoming iMEDIA conference.
• Episode 57 of the Seen and Heard in Edmonton podcast features “audio from our November meetup with Haley Radke of Adoptees On and Wang Yip of The Dip on how to find your niche.”
• Save the date for the next edition of the Edmonton Podcasting Meetup taking place on January 29: Podcast length: Keep it tight or let it run?
• The Edmonton Journal’s Graham Thomson found himself as the focus of a recent piece at The Rebel for his story about Wildrose MLA Don MacIntyre’s comments on climate change.
• A new local documentary called Things Arab Men Say premiered recently and “captures candid conversations about identity, race and stereotypes, all set in the backdrop of an unassuming barbershop.” You can watch the trailer here.
• Accessible Media Inc. is looking for a Bureau Producer to join the team here in Edmonton.
• The deadline to apply for the News Editor position at The Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton is January 20.
• The CRTC has approved two new radio stations to serve the Edmonton market. An application by 1811258 Alberta Ltd. was approved to “operate an ethnic commercial AM radio station” and an application by Société Radio Communautaire du Grand Edmonton Society was approved to “operate a French-language community FM radio station”. The first will broadcast at 580 AM (CKUA’s old frequency) and the second will broadcast at 97.9 FM.
• The temporary downtown location of the Edmonton Public Library is now open in Enterprise Square in the former Citytv studios. It was great to see the windows full of people instead of just blacked out curtains on my way home today!

Alberta families benefit from carbon levy rebate, photo by Premier of Alberta

And here is some slightly less local media stuff:

• Medium announced some big changes last week. They’re eliminating 50 jobs and are changing the business model, with Ev Williams writing that “it’s clear that the broken system is ad-driven media on the internet.”
• Interesting to hear about Postmedia IO, a new initiative “focused on expanding innovation capabilities, growing business-to-business (B2B) product strategy, and evolving the company’s digital possibilities for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).”
• Norway is going to be the first country to start switching off its FM radio network. “Sixty-six per cent of Norwegians oppose switching off FM, with just 17 per cent in favour and the rest undecided, according to an opinion poll published by the daily Dagbladet last month.”
• The Washington Post is creating an eight-person “rapid-response investigative team that will work closely with all departments in the newsroom.” The team will consist of five reporters, an assignment editor, “a database reporter”, and “a graphics reporter”.
• Is “fake news” now a tainted term?

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.