Media Monday Edmonton: Update #317

Taproot Edmonton’s latest 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:

“Leaving my Edmonton team to join the senators — sort of the way Aleš Hemský did — won’t be easy,” wrote Paula Simons in her farewell column. “During my last few years in this newsroom, I’ve worked with tremendous veterans as well as dazzling rising stars.” Paula was one of three appointed to the Canadian Senate by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday.
Radio Cité 97.9 FM started broadcasting in Edmonton on Saturday. About 65% of the programming will be French language music, but the station will also look to attract anglophones.
Graham Thomson announced he is writing a regular opinion column for CBC and will appear on TV and radio every Friday afternoon.
With a funding boost announced on Thursday, the Government of Alberta will now provide $650,000 per year to the Alberta magazine publishing industry. “Alberta publishers produce nearly 200 titles annually, delivering 18 million copies of Alberta magazines to readers each year.”
Eat Local is a new Edmonton-based magazine from food photographer Heather Muse. “Everyone we have reached out to or told about this idea has been excited and supportive,” she wrote in the pilot issue.

Paula Simons at the 2013 Yeggies, photo by Nanc Price

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

Calgary’s The Sprawl is receiving the full $100,000 it was eligible for by participating in the Digital News Innovation Challenge. Congrats!
From Nieman Lab: In Canadian cities, the number of newspaper stories published each day has been cut in half in the last decade.
“This subject must be kept front and center, with the pressure on and the stakes made abundantly clear at every turn,” says Margaret Sullivan in a Washington Post column about media coverage of climate change.
Spotify for Podcasters is a new service that promises to provide stats, demographics, and engagement data.
There’s still room for improvement when it comes to existing local news outlets adapting to digital. “So you want to support local news. But can you even find the subscribe button on the Daily Planet’s clunky website to do so?”

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