Here is my latest update on local media stuff:

• Councillor Dave Loken and Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk were both in the news last week for comments they made using social media. Premier Redford had to “have a talk” with Lukaszuk because of an inappropriate joke he made on Facebook. Loken, on the other hand, got into a pissing match with some followers on Twitter about the arena. This is news?! I don’t care that the summer news cycle is slow, this is just lazy. It’s not like this was the first time a politician had gotten into trouble for something they said online. I’m being serious here. Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, and most of all Global Edmonton (who ran swiftly into the open arms of “social media expert” Karl Kovacs): were you inundated with requests for coverage of these stories? How about the rest of you? Does making a big deal out of them somehow make us better informed citizens? No! Instead, Loken will go back to saying nothing at all, and Lukaszuk will take his slap on the wrist and forget it ever happened. I’m sure nothing would make the mainstream media happier than to once again become the intermediary between politicians and citizens but that ship has sailed, no matter how dangerous you make social media look. Get over it.
• Lots of Edmontonians were sad to see that Cam Tait was one of the latest victims of the Postmedia cuts. Except he wasn’t? After lots of tweets all morning on Friday, Journal editor-in-chief Lucinda Chodan said that Tait will in fact continue to write a column for the Journal. Weird.
• The modern reporter, surrounded by laptops! That’s Metro’s Heather McIntyre, kicking it new school.
• Vue Weekly’s Best of Edmonton is now accepting your votes. Our online community gets just three categories, while the mainstream media gets fifteen. Plus lawyers get three categories, you can vote for your favorite RV dealer, and also your favorite fetish ware store. Time to rebalance the categories, perhaps?
• Paula Simons ran into the Twitter limits while live-tweeting the arena debate last week. “Apparently mistaking my witty real-time analysis for Spambot droppings, Twitter shut me down and shut me out.” Not exactly. Everyone is subject to the same limits: the most you can post in a day is 1000 tweets, but Twitter will further restrict that to about 100 an hour. “We’ve found great new ways to reach and respond to readers – but we’ve slowly, perhaps unwittingly, surrendered some of our independence and autonomy into the bargain.” Yup.
• The Art Gallery of Alberta is hiring a Digital Media Coordinator.
• Erin Isfeld is “back in the saddle” at CTV Edmonton!
• I love these behind-the-scenes photos of Global Edmonton’s “Our Summer” digital billboard campaign.
• Uh oh, Bob Stauffer has angered some Ducks fans with comments he made about Justin Schultz.
• This year, the Edmonton Corn Maze celebrates 30 years of CISN Country in Edmonton. Looks good! (larger version here)
• Sounds like the Journal is bullish on video.
• Want to be Western Living magazine’s new City Editor for Edmonton? The deadline to apply is July 31.
• I heard a lot of great things about Alex Tagliani this weekend, even though he easily beat the local media in a promotional go-kart race. “The Montreal-born driver wiped the floor with eight local news personalities…”
• Great to see some coverage of local blogger Jennifer Banks in Metro. #makejensday is a great idea!
• A lot has been written this week about the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado. Here’s my favorite so far, from Mathew Ingram. “As journalism professor Jay Rosen likes to say, journalism gets better when there are more people doing it.”
• Here’s a great shot of Ziyah Karmali and her cameraman in action at the Capital Ex Parade!
• I think every mainstream media organization has a presence at Capital Ex right now, but especially the radio stations. I won a mug by playing Lite 95.7’s plinko game!
• Want to be a speaker at WordCamp Edmonton 2012? Let us know! And stay tuned for registration to go live in the next few weeks.
• Below, Brittney Le Blanc speaks with business owners Nate Box, owner of Elm Cafe, and Lea Alcantara, owner of Lealea Design. The panel discussed how business owners should be working with their competition at the Edmonton Journal on July 18, 2012. Check out the recap here.

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 is my latest update on local media stuff:

• From David J. Climenhaga: “The newspaper industry was officially pronounced a dead man walking on Sunday, July 8, 2012.” I think it may have happened before that, but whatever, the story is that the Journal is going to be eliminating another 25 jobs. (Thanks to Stuart for the first tip.)
• I saw a few people ask what happened to Gary James over the last couple weeks. I’m not sure what he is up to now, but Media Mag reports that he was relieved of his duties at JOE FM (replaced by Jonny Sullivan from The Bear in Ottawa) along with Boyd Leader.
• The Edmonton Experiment launched Capital Ideas on July 3. Described as a place where “Edmonton’s entrepreneurs help each other by sharing what they know,” the new initiative held its first event at the Edmonton Journal the following day. You can see video of the event here. The next event takes place on Wednesday. Here’s some behind-the-scenes from Karen.
• Full Disclosure from Lowetide. Roughly half a million pageviews per month and just under 40,000 uniques – impressive!
• The Journal wants to know how you get their product – let them know by filling out this survey. And don’t be surprised when they erect the paywall later this year!
• Speaking of the paywall, that’s all I could think about after reading this post from Stuart Thomson. Well, not the only thing that came to mind. In the post, Stuart joins the parade of columnists arguing against Journatic, a company that provides local news outsourcing. He uses that to explain that “award-winning journalism” comes from “working a beat, meeting lots of people and eventually putting it all together into a “hard” story”. Or, you know, from giving yourselves an award. He declares: “We have to be wary about listening to tech geeks with no experience in journalism, who see a lot of micro trends but rarely see the big picture.” Right, because innovation often comes from those with blinders on. Sigh.
• Gig City has a profile on K-97’s Melissa Wright: she’s more than just a rock chick!
• I missed this last month, so belated congratulations to Inglorious Hipsters on your one year anniversary!
• The Journal is running a new ad campaign featuring Journal personalities.
• Some sad news: Edmonton writer Darren Zenko died of cancer a couple weeks ago. Early in his career he was at DJ at CJSR and was a staff member at The Gateway. He later wrote for the Journal, Vue Weekly, and See Magazine.
• Another blog bites the dust: I Heart Edmonton is calling it quits after three years. Thanks for all the great content Emil!
• It was really sparsely populated at launch, so I’m glad to see the EJ Events app has more data now. It’s great also that the Journal is experimenting with new things like the app, though this is concerning: “Robin Schroffel, the Journal staffer who works eight hours a day behind the scenes of the events app uploading and moderating content…” Really? Eight hours a day?!
• Metro Edmonton is looking for a Senior Reporter/Photographer. The deadline to apply is August 5.
• Global Edmonton’s Laurel Clark wrote about her trip to work with journalists in Liberia.
• Want to work on Alberta Westworld magazine? The AMA is looking to hire a writer for the publication.
• Did you miss The Unknown Studio’s live blog from BT Edmonton on Friday? It’s hilarious, and was a great way to cap off Bloggers Week.
• Have you seen The Newsroom, the new drama from Aaron Sorkin? I watched the first episode, and thought it was okay. Have been enjoying blog posts about the show more: The Differences Between The Newsroom And An Actual Newsroom and On Bullshit: The Newsroom to name just a couple. But probably my favorite comes from Jeff Jarvis: Can we reimagine TV news (please)?
• From Paula Kirman, another item I missed last month: The 7th Annual Astral Caring for Kids Radio Broadcast took place on June 14, raising funds for the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation. Radio stations 104-9 Virgin Radio, 100.3 The Bear, and The Team 1260 took part, interviewing children and families who have been impacted by the Stollery and encouraging listeners to donate. A total of $350,000 was raised.

Check out more photos from the radiothon here.

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.

I’m looking forward to Wednesday evening’s DIYalogue. Sharon and I will be “speed mentors” along with Mary Bailey, the publisher of The Tomato, and a number of other “local food luminaries”. Should be fun!

Here is my latest update on local media stuff:

• I’m so glad I was able to attend the live recording of The Unknown Studio’s third season finale last week. Held at Happy Harbor Comics, the show featured Dana DiTomaso, Apocalypse Kow, Liam Crewick, Erica Viegas, Todd Babiak, and Trent Wilkie. It was lots of fun, and I think everyone in the audience really enjoyed themselves. I know it must have been a ton of work to pull off and I hope Adam and Scott feel that it was worth it. Congratulations guys on an amazing live show – can’t wait until the next one! Linda wrote about the event in her weekly column too. You can check out more photos here.

Adam & Scott interview Todd Babiak

• Have you seen CTV Edmonton’s new website? It’s cleaner and much easier to read now. I do not particularly like that they have gone with a custom video player, instead of using something like YouTube – there’s no way to embed or share these videos. Otherwise, I quite like the site!
• GIG CITY has also launched an updated design for its site. I always thought that the yellow on black was unique, but the new colors are much easier to read.
• The Bear (100.3 FM) has started selling t-shirts emblazoned with the words “Calgary sucks” to mark 20 years on the air. I wrote on Twitter about my distaste for the idea, but it’s worth repeating here. Yes there’s a healthy rivalry when it comes to our sports teams, but why does that have to extend to everything else? Calgary and Edmonton are not big enough to constantly slag one another. I don’t care that proceeds go to charity or that it’s just for fun. This kind of campaign does more harm than good.
• We should see an update on the Edmonton Experiment this week. Keep an eye on this site and give @CapitalIdeasYEG a follow on Twitter.
• The Journal has launched a mobile web app for events called EJ Events. Built in-house by Donald Allen, it appears to have just two upcoming events at the moment.
• It’s not online yet, but the July issue of Avenue Edmonton has a feature on the Edmonton Journal’s Nick Lees. I bet he really likes the photo!
• Speaking of Nick, he has this great story: “The 90-year-old secret of where two infamous murderers are buried has been uncovered by Global TV producer/anchor Gord Steinke.”
• The Journal has released an e-book called Homicide: Beyond the Numbers that looks at last year’s record homicide rate. I haven’t read it yet, but I did buy it for my Kindle ($4.44).
• mediamag has a feature on Meagan Kelly’s film Grace and a profile of BT Edmonton’s Ziyah Karmali.
• Kerry Campbell, host of the midday show at 96.3 Capital FM, was unable to come to terms on a new agreement with the station has decided to move on.
• Venture Publishing is looking for a Managing Editor “to develop and manage titles in its custom publishing division.” The deadline to apply is July 31.
• Kevin Zahara, Assistant Program Director/Music Director for Newcap Alberta’s North West group of stations, has resigned to take a position in Premier Redford’s communications office.
• La Nouvelle Beaumont News, a weekly Sun Media newspaper, has an immediate opening for a multi-media journalist.
• The premium content that used to be in the Sunday edition of the Journal has now been moved to the Friday and Saturday editions.
• The St. Albert Leader is looking for a print/web journalist to join the team.
• Congratulations to the Prairie Belles Podcast on reaching 100 episodes! To celebrate, the 100th episode is a videocast:

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 is my latest update on local media stuff:

• Here’s your must-read post of the week: Stacey Brotzel recounts the experience of having a bomb sent to A-Channel about 13 years ago. Thank you for writing that Stacey.
• Yesterday was the final Sunday print edition of the Edmonton Journal. Dave wrote a goodbye post and said, “Cutting off the eyes, ears, and noses of a local newspaper to save the face of a newspaper corporation will make me less likely to turn to that newspaper as a source of local information.”
• Congratulations to CTV Edmonton on receiving the Best Newscast award in the RTDNA Canada awards for its coverage of the Slave Lake Disaster.
• The Edmonton Journal is looking for help with its Heritage Project, an effort to highlight Edmonton’s immigrant population. They’re looking for one immigrant from all 250 countries around the world, living here in the Edmonton region.
• On June 15, Capital FM and the Edmonton Sun raised money and awareness for the Make-A-Wish foundation. Last year the event raised $50,000 and this year their efforts raised $70,700.
• Think you have what it takes to be Yelp Edmonton’s Next Community Manager? Brittany Kustra has decided to move on from the role, which means whoever gets it has big shoes to fill!
• Have you seen CTV Edmonton’s new project My Edmonton Is…? “Our goal is to make this website a celebration of everything that makes Edmonton great…the big things and the small things.” Looks like you can upload video and photos, or record something using your webcam. Looks like it uses the same system, called Filemobile, as Global Edmonton’s Ground Force.
• Congratulations to all the recipients of the 2012 Western Magazine Awards! Eighteen Bridges was named Best New Magazine as well as Magazine of the Year for Alberta/NWT.
• CTV2 is looking for a Web Producer to join the team here in Edmonton. The closing date is July 6.
• These are some staggering numbers: CKUA has to move 60,000 CDs, 72,000 LPs, and 11,000 78s from its current location to its new office in the rebuilt Alberta Hotel, not to mention normal office stuff. Yikes!
• Awkward and funny: Global Edmonton’s Quinn Ohler takes a stab at which generation Kevin O’Connell is part of.
• CTV is now accepting nominations for the 2012 CTV Citizen Of The Year Award. “Created in 2011 by CTV Edmonton in partnership with the Edmonton Heritage Festival Association, the CTV Citizen Of The Year Award recognizes one person each year who has contributed to the promotion, awareness, understanding and appreciation for cultural diversity in Edmonton.” The deadline for nominations is July 20.
• Ryder debuted on Hot 107 this morning. Here’s a video with the new guy.
• The latest edition of Edmontonians, now published quarterly, is available. Grab the PDF here.
• We know of course that the Oilers selected Nail Yakupov first overall in the NHL Entry Draft, but that makes this article all the more interesting. Author Ryan Lambert says that since early May, “the Edmonton media has very much gone on a campaign against Yakupov in various ways, most often by way of endlessly praising defenseman Ryan Murray…”
• The Lunch Rush column in tomorrow’s Metro will be the last edition – the feature has been pulled across the country. You can read it here.
• This has got to be the most intense media launch ever. To celebrate being halfway to Christmas and to announce that Edmonton’s Food Bank and 630CHED Santas Anonymous are the charities for this year’s Singing Christmas Tree, a dozen skydiving Santas dropped into Louise McKinney Riverfront Park this morning:

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.