Here’s my latest update on local media stuff:

• Venture Publishing Inc. is once again in the news for its failure to pay freelancers in a timely manner, if at all. “Venture Publishing currently owes tens of thousands of dollars to these freelancers, and has failed to make good on constant promises to pay them for their work,” wrote Story Board. They previously wrote about this back in 2013. CBC picked up the story this week and interviewed CEO Ruth Kelly who said “Venture is in exactly in the same situation with many of our clients, where we have had extremely slow or absolutely no payment, complete default.” Apparently there are at least 13 freelancers waiting for outstanding payments totalling nearly $40,000.
• 91.7 The Bounce has rebranded and is now KiSS 91.7. Sounds like the format is more or less the same, but the station will now feature 91 minute commercial free playlists at noon, 3pm, and 9pm. They celebrated the rebrand with 91 hours of commercial free music.
• Wednesday is Tim Querengesser’s last day as managing editor of Metro Edmonton. “I’m leaving the magazining and newspapering industry,” he wrote, adding “I’m not ready to leave it.”
• Marty Forbes at @MediaInYeg reports that John Cummings, who worked in Edmonton at CJCA and CHQT in the 1980s, has passed away.
• Here’s a feature on why journalists must consider what to include in their stories from Jeff Samsonow. “Otherwise it could be twisted into misinformation and hateful rhetoric,” he wrote. Jeff spoke about the topic on The Ryan Jespersen Show on Wednesday.
• The roast of 96.3 Capital FM’s Rob Christie is coming up on March 8. Here’s a feature on Rob from Nick Lees.
• The Book Publisher’s Association of Alberta is asking the provincial government to include a $15 million fund for publishing houses in its next budget. According to executive director Kieran Leblanc, there are now just 28 publishers in Alberta, down from 45 in the mid 90s.
• Vue Weekly is seeking freelancers and is inviting story pitches to be sent to new editor Lee Butler.
• The Edmonton Heritage Council has sponsored a feature-length animated 3D film focused on Edmonton’s City Beautiful Movement. You can see it March 3 and 4 at the Capitol Theatre at Fort Edmonton.
• CISN Country 103.9 was featured in a recent episode of Everything Edmonton with Seanna Collins.
• Don’t miss the latest blog and podcast roundups from Seen and Heard in Edmonton.
• Omar Mouallem is leading a two-hour seminar tomorrow evening on the art of perfecting the pitch.
• The March issue of Alberta Views includes a feature on the fall of Alberta’s big city newspapers written by Ian Gill.

And here is some slightly less local media stuff:

• The latest issue of WIRED includes a feature on how the New York Times is clawing its way into the future.
• Bell Media is juggling its executives as it lost president Mary Ann Turcke to the NFL Network.
• Donald Trump’s war on the media escalated Friday when a group of media organizations including the New York Times, CNN, and others were barred from attending the White House’s daily press briefing.
• Mozilla has acquired Pocket, which is the service I use for saving and reading articles and other links. They have said Pocket will continue to operate as an independent subsidiary.
• From the Wall Street Journal: “YouTube viewers world-wide are now watching more than 1 billion hours of videos a day, threatening to eclipse U.S. television viewership.” That’s a 10-fold increase over 2012.

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.

Here’s my latest update on local media stuff:

• The finalists for the 2017 Alberta Magazines Awards have been announced. The event takes place in Calgary on March 16 and 17. Great to see so many Edmonton nominations, including 13 for Avenue Edmonton and 6 for The Yards!
• The Rotary Roast of 96.3 Capital FM’s Rob Christie is coming up on March 8 in support of the BGCBigs of Edmonton & Area. Cam Tait has the scoop on Rob’s career and the charity event.
• Congratulations to Ryan Jackson on being nominated for a News Photographers Association of Canada (NPAC) Multimedia of the Year award for a video he shot while still at the Edmonton Journal. You can see the video about former MMA champion Ryan Ford here.
• The iMEDIA Social Media Conference is coming up on March 10 and 11 here in Edmonton and they’ve continued rolling out new details. Calder Bateman’s digital strategist Linda Hoang is going to be emceeing.
• Mike Johnston (aka Mr. Kitchen Magpie) recently shared some tips for bloggers interested in hosting sponsored posts. “The rule of thumb is simple, always charge something for your work, even if the product itself is free.”
• Speaking of sponsored posts, Lyndsey of Over My Styled Body used a day in her life as a blogger as the premise for a product partnership.
• I had to miss it, but I gather last week’s panel on journalism (organized by the Peter Lougheed Leadership College) was a mix of pining for what once was and slowing turning attention to the future. As Karen tweeted, “the work is important and desired, it requires passion, and you might have to make your own job.”
• Episode 60 of the Seen and Heard in Edmonton podcast features “a debate between Taylor Chadwick of What It Is against Andrea Beça of That’s So Maven on how long a podcast should be.” It’s a very Canadian debate!
• The next Edmonton Podcasting Meetup takes place on Saturday, February 25 at Variant Edition Comics & Culture. This edition will once again explore the theme of how to get started, but this time through the eyes of a fairly new podcast.
• Edmonton photographer Stephanie Simpson has started a new project called This Is Not a Passport Photo to provide family photo sessions to newly arrived Syrian refugees in Edmonton.
• Global Edmonton is looking for a Digital Journalist to join the team. The deadline to apply is February 24.
• Tanner Young Publishing, the company behind WHERE Edmonton and Canadian Cowboy Country, is looking for a Digital & Listings Editor. The deadline to apply is February 24.
• In case you missed it, Taproot Edmonton was featured in Editor & Publisher recently.

Alberta’s 15th Premier, Honourable Dave Hancock, Recognized with Legislature Portrait, photo by Premier of Alberta

And here is some slightly less local media stuff:

• My social media feeds blew up last week as news spread that Stuart McLean, the host of CBC Radio’s The Vinyl Cafe, had died at age 68.
• CJR invited more than two dozen freelancers to dish on their experiences with publishers. They hope to make it an ongoing project.
• I’ve been a reader of the Local Matters newsletter for a couple months now and I really like it. I don’t read all the stories, but it’s a great overview of the important local watchdog journalism taking place throughout the US. Here’s the latest.
• From researchers Damian Radcliffe and Christopher Ali in NiemanLab: If small newspapers are going to survive, they’ll have to be more than passive observers to the news.
• Donald Trump has declared that the news media are “the enemy of the American people” but has had only praise for “the conspiracy-theorizing, flame-throwing nationalistic radio and internet star” that is Alex Jones of Infowars. As Jim Rutenberg notes, the site’s traffic is “above that of the fact-checking site Politifact.com.” Ugh.

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.

Here’s my latest update on local media stuff:

• Congratulations to Amber Bracken on winning 1st prize in the World Press Photo’s contemporary issues category for her photo of pipeline protests at Standing Rock. “I don’t even have words for how grateful, and excited I am to be included,” she wrote on Facebook.
• Episode 23 of The Modern Manhood Podcast features Adam Rozenhart.
• Jeff Samsonow stopped by CBC’s Edmonton AM to talk about his new site, Edmonton Quotient. The site officially launched on February 7. Here’s a bit of a behind-the-scenes on the site’s headlines feature.
• Elise Stolte has started a newsletter called the EJ Urban Insider. “This newsletter is a new attempt to make sure you don’t miss our best urban affairs/planning/city hall related reporting,” she wrote in the first edition.
• Email newsletters seem to be catching on in the local media! Check out Stuart Thomson’s Alberta politics 3 minute recap too.
• Here are the latest blog and podcast roundups from Seen and Heard in Edmonton.
• James Gardner, who some in Edmonton will remember as Sheila Gardner, “is a much happier man after undergoing the first of three gender-affirmation surgeries” funded through the B.C. Medical Services Plan.
• This guy really doesn’t like The Gateway.
• Vue Weekly is looking for a staff writer and also a listings coordinator. Both listings close in a month.
• Wild TV is looking for a Human Resources Coordinator. Launched in 2004 and based here in Edmonton, “Wild TV has access to over 14 million linear household subscribers in Canada alone.”
• Here is Paula Simons, Jana Pruden, and Dave Breakenridge talking with Stacey Brotzel on CTV Edmonton about Trump and the media. Warning: you’ll need Flash to watch the video.

And here is some slightly less local media stuff:

• This Toronto Life interview with Postmedia CEO Paul Godfrey is something else. “Are our papers as good as they used to be? No, but they haven’t become unacceptable,” he said. Way to set the bar real high there Paul!
• February 22 is Pink Shirt Day and until then Shaw is donating $1 to support bullying prevention programs for every ise of the #PinkShirtPromise hashtag on social media.
• The Local News Lab has relaunched with a brand new website. Looks great, and I look forward to plenty of new content there too!
• Here’s some interesting data from Mark Blevis and David Coletto about the media and the Internet. “Facebook is closing in on television as the breaking news source for Canadians and is already the leading source among those under 45 years of age,” they found.
• From the National Post: Will Cineplex, Canada’s largest cinema chain, be next in line to roll up its sleeves and produce its own content? Netflix and Amazon may leave them no choice.

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.

This week’s update was brought to you by Taproot Edmonton, a source of curiosity-driven stories about our city, cultivated by the community. Become a member today to help us publish great stories about Edmonton.

Here’s my latest update on local media stuff:

• Stuart Thomson wrote about how an increasing number of press secretaries at the Legislature used to be journalists. “The path from journalism to politics is a well-worn one,” he notes. His colleague Graham Thomson argues that the real issue isn’t that they are switching sides, it’s “that the number of journalists is shrinking” and that is a problem for “the health of democracy.”
• “After three years and 167 missions, Gastropost is saying goodbye.” The Journal’s experiment in creating a food community shared it’s final mission today, appropriately called The Last Bite.
• Meanwhile, Capital Ideas announced a couple weeks ago that Karen Unland is back as host and “she is looking forward to shining a light on insights from Edmonton’s entrepreneurs again.”
• A FOIP request by Postmedia has led to a change at city hall: “Starting this spring, city officials said they will start publicly posting all email memorandums sent between city administration and council members.” The first release is expected March 3.
• Mark Iype, Paula Simons, Marion Warnica, Jason Markusoff, and Josh Greschner are speaking next week at Words Matter: Journalism’s Role in the 21st Century, put on by the Peter Lougheed Leadership College at the University of Alberta.
• The next CPRS event features Sharon MacLean talking about “ideas to Navigate the Media Aftershock.” The event takes place on February 24 at The Westin.
• Jason Gregor wrote a birthday profile of John Short, a “long-time Edmonton radio personality and all-around sports guru.”
• Cam Tait wishes long-time Corus account executive Brian Wilkes a happy retirement. “Brian’s start in radio began in the late 1980s when he joined the sales staff of 930 CJCA and K-97.”
• Episode 59 of the Seen and Heard in Edmonton podcast features Tyler Butler, “the always-learning digital marketing strategist and musician who explores social media on the new podcast Don’t Call Me A Guru.”
• If you can believe it, Postmedia is looking for a Reporter to join the Edmonton newsroom. The deadline to apply is February 17.
• From Honey & Betts, here are the top local bloggers, social media influencers, and photographers you need to follow on Instagram.

Amazon Echo, photo by Adam Bowie

And here is some slightly less local media stuff:

• Amazon’s Alexa (the personal assistant inside the Echo) was a big hit at CES this year. Flash Briefing is an interesting start, but what else can news organizations do with Alexa? I’m still waiting for the Echo to launch in Canada.
• Google is making changes to AMP pages to make the publishers’ URLs more visible and actionable by readers. I’m still not a fan of how everything appears behind a google.com domain name.
• From CJR: Is “fake news” a fake problem?
• You may have heard that Norway plans to drop FM radio in favor of a modern equivalent known as digital audio broadcasting. It’s a bold but risky move as people have tried and failed to replace FM before.
• Guelph, Ontario lost its daily newspaper about a year ago. NiemanLab takes a look at the impact.

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.

Here’s my latest update on local media stuff:

• Friday’s episode of The Ryan Jespersen Show featured Jana Pruden, Tristin Hopper and Jeff Samsanow talking about Trump and the future of journalism. Oh, and Garth Brooks.
• Jeff was also on the radio earlier in the week on 630 CHED’s Afternoon News discussing trust & the media.
• Metro Edmonton is looking for a new Managing Editor. The deadline to apply is February 25. Current managing editor Tim Querengesser‘s last day will be March 1, after which he will be “working on a book, freelancing, learning to live lean and looking for new projects.”
• As mentioned back in November, this was Keri Sweetman’s last week at the Journal. Also leaving this week was Dave Lazzarino who started at the Sun back in 2012.
• Freelance photographer Jason Franson was covering the Women’s March at the Legislature last weekend for the Canadian Press and found himself in an altercation with The Rebel’s Sheila Gunn Reid and is now receiving death threats.
• Congratulations to Global Edmonton’s Gord Steinke on celebrating 25 years with the station! “Been a wonderful 25 years. Went fast by fast,” he wrote. In addition to seeing him on your TV you can now see Gord on your smartphone with Edmojis.
• Two interesting threads from Elise Stolte to share this week. The first deals with proposed changes to the MGA that would let the City stop advertising bylaw changes and rezonings in the Journal. The second concerns the City’s freedom of information policy & processes.
• Here’s Karen talking about where our most recent Taproot Edmonton stories came from.
• Don’t miss the latest Edmonton blog and podcast roundups from Seen and Heard in Edmonton.
• Here’s a CBC Edmonton feature on the Yeggers Instagram account that was started by Brittney Punter. “The page has become a platform where local photographers share their work, and the collection has captured the city’s often unappreciated beauty.”
• New Trail’s Thought Box interviewed Tim Currie, Jason Harley, and Paula Simons about “alternative facts” and other “post-truth” issues.
• CBC Radio has a part-time opening in Edmonton for a Weekend Producer.

Women’s March on Washington – Edmonton Solidary Event, photo by Paula Kirman

And here is some slightly less local media stuff:

• What can I say about Trump’s first week in office that you haven’t already seen elsewhere? It seems Mediagazer is all-Trump, all-the-time right now.
• Edward Greenspon, former editor-in-chief of The Globe and Mail, has written The Shattered Mirror, a report that “lays out the issues facing the Canadian news business and offers 12 recommendations for how to ensure a sustainable future for journalism in that country.” You can check out the report’s microsite here.
• Canadian journalists are meeting with Members of Parliament in Ottawa this week to discuss challenges facing the media.
• The Canadian Media Fund and Google Canada are launching a YouTube channel to celebrate “iconic Canadian film and television content from years gone by” as part of Canada’s 150th anniversary.
• This one is in my Pocket list for later reading – Ezra Levant: The Rebel’s unrepentant commander.
• Amsterdam’s De Correspondent reports it has reached the milestone of 50,000 paying members! “Some 78% of members pay €60 a year (around $65), the other 22% pay €6 a month ($6.50).” Amazing.

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.

Here’s my latest update on local media stuff:

• Jeff Samsonow has announced Edmonton Quotient, “a new Edmonton magazine that will focus on local news, issues and discussions about our city.” He shared a bit more on the project here. I look forward to seeing where it goes!
• In case you missed it, I shared an update on Taproot Edmonton last week!
• Paula Simons writes that Edmonton Police have “refused to release or confirm the names of the victim and the shooter” in a recent Riverbend homicide. She’s absolutely right that this sets a dangerous precedent. “As a community, we need to figure out what went wrong, how we might have prevented this tragedy, how we might prevent future ones,” she wrote. “When we don’t name names, we minimize the gravity of the offence.” The same could be said about pedestrian deaths.
• Congratulations to CTV Edmonton’s Daryl McIntyre, nominated for Best News Anchor Local in the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television’s 2017 awards.
• This year’s edition of the Corus Radiothon raised $1.29 million for the Stollery Children’s Hospital. Over the last 17 years, the event has raised around $20 million.
• Sheila Gunn Reid, reporter for The Rebel, was allegedly assaulted at Saturday’s rally at the Legislature in support of the Women’s March on Washington. Edmonton Police are now investigating.
• Jonathan Glasgow is a new Morning Live Reporter at CTV Edmonton. He started last week.
• Michael Hingston has announced he is writing a book about Calvin & Hobbes for ECW Press. Awesome! As a huge Calvin & Hobbes fan, I’m really looking forward to it! Publication is slated for April 2018.
• There was a big Instagram meetup on Sunday at CBC in Edmonton City Centre. Sounds like it was a big success!
• January 25 is Bell Let’s Talk Day which aims to raise awareness about mental health. Cam Tait has shared his own experience and stressed how important it is to talk.
• The latest episode of the What It Is Podcast features local podcasters Andrea Beça, German Villegas, and Adam Rozenhart talking all about podcasting.
• Episode 58 of the Seen and Heard in Edmonton podcast features Nick McQuik, “the always hustling comic who co-hosts The Quik and Slow Comedy Show.”
• Nicola Crosbie is the new communications strategist for Alberta’s Ministry of Status of Women.
• Here’s another CBC Edmonton story on broadcaster Larry Langley who died on January 10.
• The Works International Visual Arts Society is looking for a Marketing and Communications Officer. The deadline to apply is February 3.

How about that fog on the weekend!

And here is some slightly less local media stuff:

• Donald Trump and press secretary Sean Spicer blatantly lied about the inauguration and women’s march turnouts, so the next day Kellyanne Conway said they were simply offering “alternative facts”. I just have no words for this.
• Though this is interesting: Trump’s White House is going to have “Skype Seats” to give journalists outside the D.C. area more access.
• Ghost, an open source platform for independent publishers, has launched a $45,000 journalism development program.
• A letter from Globe & Mail editor-in-chief David Walmsley: Journalism matters. “Journalism is driven by a commitment to curiosity, a fidelity to the facts and a determination to discover the unknown,” he wrote.
• The Guardian published a story recently about a potential backdoor in WhatsApp but it was controversial from the start. Now more than 70 security experts have signed an open letter asking them to retract the story.

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.