Tag: news

Edmonton Notes for 8/18/2013

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

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Here are some upcoming events:

The 97 Street Night Market went really well yesterday! The freak afternoon hailstorm was a bit concerning, but as you can see in the photo below, it turned out to be a lovely evening. Congrats to all involved but especially to Sharon, who put in a ton of work to make it happen!

97 Street Night Market at sunset

Edmonton Election 2013: Update #1

The format seems to work well for my weekly Edmonton and Media notes, so I’m starting a weekly series for the election. Thursday evenings will be the day, mainly because that’s when you can expect to have a #yegvote Hangout at EdmontonPolitics.com.

Tonight was our third Hangout and our first with a special guest! We spent some time talking with Aliza Dadani, founder of ActivatED, a self-described group of “concerned, young forward-thinking Edmontonians.” Here’s some coverage they got recently from Metro. You can watch the video at YouTube:

Here are this week’s notes:

 

I decided to put Dave’s declared candidate data into a spreadsheet. There are currently 6 mayoral candidates, 47 ward candidates, 16 public school board candidates, and 11 Catholic school board candidates. That compares to 7, 62, 24, and 20 on nomination day in 2010. Here’s the mayoral and ward races broken down by gender:

Some forum and other event dates to note:

You can follow Edmonton Election news on Twitter using the hashtag #yegvote and you can see my coverage here.

What have I missed? Let me know!

Disclosure: I’m actively volunteering for Don Iveson’s mayoral campaign.

Media Monday Edmonton: Update #85

Here is my latest update on local media stuff:

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  • It’s an odd decision. Assuming the Journal and Postmedia understand the importance of digital to their future, then the only logical reason to let Kerry go would be if they felt someone else was a better fit. If that’s the case, then I’d expect them to bring someone on board who lacks a traditional media background (Kerry was a journalist & editor for more than a decade at the Journal before taking on digital). Another possibility is that Postmedia is planning to centralize digital, which I’m not sure is wise. Of course, there could be some sort of internal politicking going on too, but that seems unlikely given that the Journal is currently without a publisher or editor-in-chief.
  • Rick Harp’s last day as host of Edmonton AM on CBC was today. He’s returning to Winnipeg to reunite with his family. Best of luck Rick, can’t wait to see what you’re up to next!

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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.

Edmonton Notes for 8/11/2013

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

NSR twin bridges (berm construction before June flood) - May 2013
Twin bridges under construction (May 2013)

Twin Bridges from above
Rendering of what they’ll look like

Here are some upcoming events:

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Love the “awesome” photo bomb! Check out more cosplay from Animethon here.

Media Monday Edmonton: Update #84

Here is my latest update on local media stuff:

  • Let’s start this update with a recap of the big changes that Corus has been making recently. We now know who will be taking over the spot vacated by the Rutherford Show on 630 CHED – Dan Tencer and Andrew Grose will begin hosting Tencer and Grose on August 19. J’lyn Nye will be taking over the afternoon show from 2-6pm on 630 CHED with Mark Scholz that same day (her final day with Fresh FM was July 26). The surprise casualty in all the changes? Lesley Primeau has been let go.

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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.

Edmonton Notes for 8/4/2013

I was in London, UK all week for work and though I didn’t plan on taking a mini-break from blogging it turned out that way. Anyway, I’m back now!

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

The Edmonton River Valley above the Royal Glenora Club #yeg
Great panorama by Dean Smith.

Here are some upcoming events:

art gallery in edmonton
Love this shot of the Art Gallery of Alberta by Leighton Ramos.

Media Monday Edmonton: Linking in the local paywall era

In December 2012, the paywall came to Edmonton when the Edmonton Sun launched SUN+. In May, the Edmonton Journal followed suit with the Postmedia paywall. It was only a matter of time before local media decided to try the approach made popular by the New York Times. Maybe they’ll help a little, but paywalls are unlikely to save media organizations, especially local ones. Time will tell what kind of an impact they have here in Edmonton.

For my own news consumption, I haven’t really been affected by either paywall. I’m a print subscriber of the Journal, so I get full digital access as well, provided I login. I don’t read the Sun particularly often to be honest, so I find I don’t run up against the limit there.

Where I have been impacted is in what I link to. If you did an analysis of all of the websites I have linked to over the years, particularly in my weekly Edmonton Notes, I don’t think it would be a surprise to find the Edmonton Journal on top. The reason I link there is simple: they cover more local news than anyone else, often sooner than anyone else, and almost always better than anyone else.

Lately though, I have been trying to avoid linking to the Journal. The reason is also simple. I hate the experience someone might have if they click through and have reached their paywall limit:

journal paywall

If you encounter that screen and try to close the dialog, you’re taken to the Journal’s homepage. You don’t get to read the article I sent you there to read. Now that’s fine, you need to pay if you’ve reached your limit. And if you don’t want to pay, then you shouldn’t be able to see the article.

But that’s not the experience I want someone to have coming from my website. Links are the currency and soul of the web, and I don’t make them lightly. If I’m linking to something, it’s because I think it is worth you taking the time to click on it.

I have never been particularly happy about linking to the Journal, actually. The biggest problem used to be that if you clicked on a link that was old enough, there’s a good chance the article would no longer be online. It’s a baffling strategy that I’ve never understood. In some cases I have used the canada.com trick to try to keep the links valid for longer, but there’s no guarantee they’ll continue working indefinitely. There almost never is on the web.

The Journal’s paywall has changed the equation. Now it doesn’t matter how old the link is – you could have a poor experience just by virtue of clicking on the Journal’s website too many times. That sucks, in my opinion.

The solution to this seems simple, right? Just link to another source that doesn’t penalize readers for reading! The problem is this: more often than not, there’s no one else worth linking to.

That sounds harsh, but it’s true.

Here’s a couple of recent examples. Let’s say I wanted to link to Mayor Mandel’s comments on turning the Yellowhead into a freeway. The Journal is my only option (here’s the canada.com link). They’re the only ones who wrote about it.

What about today’s news that the first signs are up on the site of the new downtown arena?

CTV has a video, but no story (and that video page is horrific…there’s no date or time anywhere on the page!). iNews880 has a 354 word story with a video and a couple photos. CBC has a 138 word story with a single photo. Metro has a 272 word story with a single photo. The Edmonton Sun has a 454 word story with a photo, though the story is not really about the signs (they took a different angle which is not a bad thing). But remember they too have a paywall. Global has the "best of the rest" in this case with a 578 word article and a video, though the article is mostly quotes.

The Journal’s article clocks in at 565 words and has two photos. But word counts are just one indicator to look at. In this case, as in most others, the Journal’s article is best because of the information it contains1. It has quotes like all the others, and it tells you what the signs are for, like all the others. But it also gives you the context of the project – where it is, how much it cost, how a previous Council vote led to this, what the DBA’s research has found, when construction will start, when the Oilers are expected to start playing in the new facility, the impact on Northlands, and more. There’s no question you’ll be better informed after reading the Journal’s article.

That’s the one I want to link to, if only I could be sure you’d get to read the wonderful article I just described.

It probably sounds like I’m lamenting the state of local media. I actually think this is potentially a big opportunity. Why couldn’t someone other than the Journal produce high quality content consistently? There’s no secret sauce at the Journal for doing so. Surely another organization could do what they do. It just takes resources (time, effort, money, widgets, algorithms, whatever).

Which brings us back to the paywall. Producing high quality content consistently isn’t free. If nothing else, it takes time. Postmedia (and by extension, the Journal) seems to think that the paywall can help to cover the cost of producing that content. I don’t think that’ll turn out to be the case in the long run, but I hope I’m wrong. It would be a shame if the only thing the paywall accomplishes is to make the best local content harder to get.

1 – To be clear, I don’t think the Journal’s article is perfect. It doesn’t take advantage of the fact that it’s on the web – there are no links, no interactive media, etc. But it does contain the best information in the text itself.

Edmonton Notes for 7/21/2013

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

K-Days Parade

Photo from the K-Days Parade by PremierofAlberta

Here are some upcoming events:

Boyle Renaissance

Boyle Renaissance, the site of our Truck Stop on Thursday evening!

Media Monday Edmonton: Update #83

Here is my latest update on local media stuff:

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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.

Edmonton Notes for 7/14/2013

Here are my weekly Edmonton notes:

Here are some upcoming events:

Daniel Oldaker (Dandyman)

Some of the Street Performers Festival action, photo by Connor Mah. The festival wrapped up today. Connor’s got many more photos here.