Media Monday Edmonton: Update #307

Taproot Edmonton’s second Media Roundup was published today. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday morning!

Here are a few select updates from today’s Media Roundup:

Cory Janssen’s Janalta Interactive has purchased the rights to the Alberta Venture brand and plans to relaunch the publication online with a greater focus on features.
Graham Thomson has taken a voluntary buyout from Postmedia and will be leaving the Edmonton Journal at the end of August. “Then I will let you know what I plan to do next,” he tweeted. “I cannot imagine a life outside journalism,” he said. Looks like he has options with some suggesting he start a blog or podcast, and others like the National Observer pitching him to write for them.
Evan Cooke is moving back to Alberta from Kelowna to be the News Director for The One in both Leduc and Stony Plain.
Sunday was Zoe Todd’s last day at CBC Edmonton as she heads to New York City to start a masters degree in journalism at Columbia. “A bright spot that I’ll miss,” her colleague Janice Johnston tweeted.
Tim Caufield’s show A User’s Guide to Cheating Death has been picked up by Netflix. “With researchers from the University of Alberta backing up the science, Caulfield travelled from Edmonton to other parts of the world to look into some of the most popular as well as obscure methods people are trying to ‘cheat death.'” Watch for season one this fall.

And here is some non-local media news that I found interesting this week:

Rob Lewis is stepping down from Techvibes.com after 11 years. “It’s been a blast and I look forward to keeping in touch with every startup, PR person, and HR professional that I’ve been lucky to cross paths with over the years,” he wrote. Until I did a big clean last year, I still had some Techvibes business cards from when I was a contributor. End of an era for sure!
The Guardian now earns more money from its digital operations than from its print newspapers for the first time in its history.
Non-profit organization The Signals Network is planning joint investigations with five interational media groups of the misuse of big data, along with coordination publication. There are 30 investigative journalists working on the initiative.
From Vanity Fair: How The Daily’s Michael Barbaro Unexpectedly Became the Ira Glass of The New York Times. “During the past year, Barbaro has actually become kind of legitimately famous.” It’s a good read.
“From 2008 to 2017, newsroom employment in the U.S. dropped by 23%,” reports Pew Research Center. “Newspaper newsroom employees dropped by 45% over the period, from about 71,000 workers in 2008 to 39,000 in 2017.”

Follow Edmonton media news using the hashtag #yegmedia and be sure to check out Mediagazer for the latest media news from elsewhere. You can see past Media Monday Edmonton entries here. If you have a tip or suggestion for future updates, let me know.

At Taproot Edmonton we’re working hard to ensure that local journalism has a future in our city. Join us to be part of the movement.

Published by Mack Male