Media Monday Edmonton: Update #244

Here’s my latest update on local media stuff:

• Sandy VanRiper reminds us that EJ School is coming to an end this month. “After 5 years, 31 classes and amazing teachers and almost 800 students, it has been a wonderful experience of week-long, site-based inquiry,” she wrote back in January.
• Edmonton did well at the Canadian Screen Awards! CTV Edmonton’s Daryl McIntyre was recognized as Best Local News Anchor, while Global Edmonton won a Best News Special award for its coverage of the Fort McMurray wildfires.
• The latest radio ratings for Edmonton are out and the top three remain unchanged: 630 CHED, 102.3 Now! FM, and CISN Country 103.9 FM.
• Breanna Karstens-Smith shared on Instagram that this her last week at CTV Edmonton as she is moving to Vancouver at the end of the month. “I started at CTV Edmonton in 2012 and was immediately embraced by some amazing journalists I had grown up watching,” she wrote. “I will miss the city and people but I know I’ll be back.”
• Also leaving Edmonton for B.C. is up! 99.3 FM’s Charlee Morgan. “It’s time to go home to BC while I’m still young enough and my family is still around,” she shared.
• Trent Wilkie is the new Online Editor for Vue Weekly. Congrats!
• Alberta Views has finally redesigned its website! The new look and feel is a big improvement, and you can actually read articles online now. For instance, here is the March edition’s feature on Alberta’s big-city newspapers by Ian Gill.
• Reason #19 of Emil’s 101 Reasons Why I Heart Edmonton is the local online community. “I started blogging about Edmonton back in July 2009, and there has been nothing but positive feedback and unsolicited support, and that’s carried on to my Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram too,” he wrote.
• The finalists for the 2017 RTDNA Canada Awards for the Prairie Region have been announced. CBC Edmonton earned 13 nominations, Global Edmonton earned 8 nominations, and CTV Edmonton earned 5 nominations.
• The Montreal Sauce podcast recently featured Jeff Samsonow. “He’s been a journalist, producer, writer, product strategist, content director and more,” hosts Paul and Christopher wrote. “Thus, we gave him the title, Media Mogul.”
• Elise Stolte is very active on Facebook and last week she shared some detail about what she calls her “crowd-sourced editorial board”.
• Here are the latest blog and podcast roundups from Seen and Heard in Edmonton.
• Cam Tait wrote about last week’s roast of Rob Christie. “Roasts are meant to be in good fun,” he wrote. “Yet, perhaps there is an increasing need to point out the positives people have.”
• Postmedia is looking for a Multimedia Journalist to join the team out in Spruce Grove. They’ve also got a number of summer internships open for multimedia reporters at a variety of locations in the Edmonton region.
• The brand new Edmonton Screen Industries Office now has its nine-person board and is expected to be up and running in the next few weeks.

Elizabeth Halpin, a survivor of sexual assault, telling her story to reporters in Edmonton, photo by Premier of Alberta

And here is some slightly less local media stuff:

• After 51 years with the Associated Press, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Nick Ut is retiring. He’s no doubt best known for his “stunning black-and-white image from the Vietnam War that’s come to be known simply as ‘Napalm Girl’.”
• The Guardian now has more than 185,000 subscribers and has received more than 160,000 one-off contributions from people around the world.
• Jim Rutenberg says we’re living in an era of choose-your-own-adventure news.
• The Washington Post has signed an agreement to license its digital publishing platform Arc to Tronc, which counts the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribute on its roster of papers.

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.