Here is my latest update on local media stuff:

• Tickets for MediaCamp are on sale now! Get yours here! Jeff blogged some details today too, don’t miss that.
• In case you missed it: the federal government plans to drop the so-called “Twitter ban” on posting early election results.
• Here’s a bit of criticism of the proposed downtown arena that I wouldn’t have thought of, courtesy of Terry Jones: “Do you have any idea of how many arenas in North America forgot to build press boxes over the years? It’s in double figures!”
• Jana Pruden of the Edmonton Journal is starting a local press club. Contact her for details, or follow @yegpressclub on Twitter!
• Here is Karen’s latest Edmonton New Media Roundup. Tons of good clicks to be had, as always.
• Over at the Community Newsroom blog, Karen recapped the first few months of the media lab. It’s great to hear that so many students – 175! – visited as part of the City Hall School program!
• Here’s a profile of CTV Edmonton’s meteorologist Josh Classen at the St. Albert Gazette.
• Edmonton’s NextGen has started a guest blogging series. The first entry, by Jessica Zapata, focuses on health and fitness.
• Here’s a fascinating post by Lucas Timmons for the Online News Association. He talks about how he mapped a dozen years of homicides in Edmonton – the tools he used and the lessons he learned along the way. Good stuff! (If you’re looking for more on homicides, check out my statistics & trends post).
• Intriguing headline at GIG CITY: Who broke the radio star? It’s a pretty good read. An excerpt: “Edmonton radio plays its part in the great cycle of life. Sonic 102.9 is the best in town for breaking new music. This is the consensus of all the Edmonton-based major label promotion reps, who wish to remain anonymous, all four of them.”
• At the Edmonton Journal’s Community Advisory Board meeting last week, we got to sit in on the 4pm news meeting. Managing Editor Stephanie Coombs was both entertaining and informative! I was happy to hear she dislikes the “crowd pleasing” photos, like puppies dressed as cats.
• Dave continues to illustrate the value of a simple list with his Alberta Election Candidate Update series.
• The 2012 Alberta Magazine Awards will be handed out on March 22 in Calgary. You have until January 31 to submit an entry for the Showcase Awards.
• I still don’t like Avenue Edmonton’s idea for an SCTV monument in Edmonton.
• Registration is now open for BlogWest. The early bird price is $199. After January 29, it jumps to $249.

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.

UPDATE: Stay warm out there, it’s gonna be very cold for a few days! Don’t believe me? Check out the Long John Index. I love their newsroom page: “Not only is the Long John Index a semi valuable and quasy hilarious weather service, its also GREAT filler for Media organizations!”

UPDATE2: The list of presenters for Pecha Kucha Night 12 has been posted!

Yikes, over a month since my last update! Time to get back to it. Here is my latest update on local media stuff:

• Hat-tip to Brittney on this one: Glenn Kubish recently left CTV Edmonton for a new job as Director of Media and Story at ATB Financial. Dan Kobe has now taken over as Director of News and Public Affairs.
• Don’t miss Karen’s last Edmonton New Media Roundup of 2011. Some great thoughts, mixed with lots of links to local blogs that you should definitely check out.
• Edmonton Street News, founded in 2003, will be renamed Alberta Street News starting this month. Thanks to a $2500 donation from Triumph EPCM Ltd., the paper will be distributed in Calgary as well as Edmonton, filling the gap left by Calgary’s Street Talk which folded in the summer. You can follow @AbStNews on Twitter for updates.
• Awesome story on local band The Frolics, a trio featuring CBC Edmonton reporter Scott Fralick.
• Those of you on Shaw have probably noticed that five new HD channels were added recently – SPACE, Business News Network (BNN), Bravo!, Discovery Channel, and Animal Planet.
• It sounds like “severe health conditions” led John Yerxa to sell HOT 107 FM to Harvard Broadcasting, effective December 21, 2011. They also own Edmonton’s Lite 95.7 FM. I wish John a speedy recovery!
• A total of 35 people applied to become the Edmonton Journal’s first blogger-in-residence. The announcement is expected to be made this week!
• Here is the Edmonton Journal’s monthly newsletter for January, featuring a look back at 2011.
• I love it: “The Edmonton Sun didn’t have to go far to cover this crime story.” Turns out an armed robber fleeing from the police somehow ended up in the Sun’s building where he was arrested without incident.
• Back in December, Global News announced that Ryan Ellis was appointed News Director for Global Regina. He assumes the position beginning January 16, 2012.
• Avenue Edmonton wants to erect a statue honoring SCTV and has even submitted a petition to City Council. I really have nothing more to say than what Mike wrote at The Charrette: “It doesn’t make sense to me, and totally smacks of desperation for attention. It’s the same sort of thing every small prairie town does to attract some notice: build a big monument to something tangentially related to their history or culture. But all I keep hearing is that Edmonton wants to be world-class. Okay, so which is it?”
• Alberta Venture’s theme for the year is “Exploring our Entrepreneurial Spirit”. That’s why it makes sense that they have partnered with Junior Achievement of Alberta.
• To celebrate its 15th anniversary, Alberta Venture magazine is launching a redesign, including a new website slated to go live in February. You can see some of the behind-the-scenes 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:

• Congratulations to The Charrette, now one year old! Scott and Mike wrote: “We started blogging because we saw a need for another voice advocating for good urban design in the city. We thought, and still think, that Edmonton is in a very exciting place, a time that will shape the future of the city for decades.” They’re one of my favorite local blogs, check them out!
• Here is Karen’s latest Edmonton New Media Roundup.
• As I mentioned previously, both up! 99.3 and Lite 95.7 are now playing all Christmas music, all the time. The Journal interviewed both, and it seems that Lite feels they called dibs on Xmas tunes. I do agree that two stations with Christmas programming Edmonton seems like overkill.
• The second annual Breakfast Television Christmas Tree Show & Sale is taking place in Churchill Square on Friday from 5:30am to 1:30pm!
• Congratulations to Edmonton Journal photographer Ryan Jackson! He was honoured recently with a 2011 Eppy award for Best Use of Photography on a Website in the 250,000 to one million unique visitor category for his work on panoramic photos for the 2010 Grey Cup.
• MediaMag has a good update on local media moves. Among others, Emily Mertz has replaced Jennifer Martin on Alberta Primetime. Emily Mertz filled in for Jennifer Martin while she was away, but has not replaced her, and Jennifer is back.
• Global Edmonton and Shaw are once again running the Give Me Shelter campaign to provide “thousands of much-needed items and Christmas gifts for women and children who are the victims of violence in our community.”
• The Copper & Blue blog takes the local media to task for their lack of criticism of Ryan Whitney: “The Edmonton sports media is never one to cross the Oilers’ organization, but they are collectively falling down on the job with regards to Ryan Whitney.”
• Since I started tracking local media more closely, I’ve noticed a disturbing amount of this sort of thing: a YouTube user called “YegNewsBabes” has been uploading videos of Edmonton’s female TV reporters.
• CFWE-FM broadcasts in the Edmonton area at 98.5 and airs a country format for First Nations. I came across their Radio Bingo site the other day.
• The deadline to apply to become the Edmonton Journal’s first blogger-in-residence is December 19. If you’re interested, fill out the form!
• Global Edmonton ran a five-part series on homicide recently called Capital Murder. You can see the videos here.
• Here is the final Edmonton Journal newsletter of the year.
• We had a great planning meeting for MediaCamp Edmonton 2 on the weekend. Mark February 4th in your calendar, and if you’re interested in sponsoring, please get in touch!

And here are a few non-local items I found interesting:

• I think the Little Printer is neat idea, though it’s a novelty at best. One of the things it enables is a personalized “newspaper”, printed on-demand just for you. The BERG Cloud that powers it is much more interesting, however.
• The Journalism Foundation launched today with a mission to promote, develop and sustain free and independent journalism throughout the world. You can read more about it at The Independent.
• Aaron Sorkin’s new HBO drama about cable news will be called “Newsroom”.
• The new Xbox 360 dashboard goes live tomorrow. I can’t wait! With over 50 million consoles sold and more than 35 million Xbox Live memberships, the Xbox appears to have the best chance of ushering in “the future of TV.”

The Edmonton Journal WiFi Zone in Kingsway Mall

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:

• Rick Harp & Lydia Neufeld made their debut as the new co-hosts of CBC’s Edmonton AM this morning.
• Karen is back with another Edmonton New Media Roundup. I thought she did a great job at WordCamp on the weekend, with her talk entitled “Going Beyond ‘Bloggers vs. Journalists’”.
• She also used the opportunity to announce a new opportunity from the Edmonton Journal. The paper has put out a call for applications to be the paper’s first blogger-in-residence. The time commitment is very reasonable at 25 hours spread over a six-week period.The deadline for applications is December 19 at noon.
• Lana Cuthbertson wrote a response on her blog to an article called “Is Local News Over?” and said “I’m seeing a better-connected Edmonton, largely because of the positive changes to local news.”I like that her definition of local news seems to include blogs, Twitter, and other “new” types of media without making a big deal out of it.
• Sheldon Souray is back in the NHL with the Dallas Stars, and caused a “mild kerfuffle” with Edmonton media when he refused all interview requests leading up to tonight’s game.
• Apparently Vue Weekly’s website has been moved to a faster server, which is great because it rarely worked before. So far so good, it appears nice and quick!
• Global Edmonton has been running a contest using Mobio, a QR-code based loyalty app.
• A reminder that Social Media Breakfast Edmonton #12 is taking place this Friday, at CBC Centre Stage.
• And coming up on the 29th is CTV Edmonton’s Charity Tweetup.
• Sharon noticed this advertisement in Elle magazine and snapped a photo for me:

• During my talk at WordCamp, I shared some Edmonton Blogosphere-related statistics. My current best estimate is that there are around 3400 local blogs. Here’s a breakdown of the platforms bloggers are using (about half of all local blogs run WordPress):

• And here’s a measure of how many of those blogs are active (roughly 25% of those ~3400 blogs posted in the last week):

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:

• Don’t miss Kikki Planet’s feature on Ryan Jespersen and Kari Skelton – Movember’s Power Couple. Great write-up, and great photos by Jimmy Jeong too. Here’s a short excerpt: “The schedule this young “power couple” keeps is unimaginable to most of us, and yet in addition to the somewhat inhumane hours required by their jobs, the duo are always willing to support a local charity via public appearances, championing a cause, and charity event hosting.”
• Here is Todd Babiak’s last column as a staff writer at the Edmonton Journal. He tweeted about his departure on November 2: “A passionate thanks to everyone who has followed my regular columns in the @edmontonjournal over the years. I’ve been very lucky. #sucky” Todd will continue to contribute to The Journal as a freelancer, but will devote most of his time to Story Engine.
• As I mentioned in my list of unfunded growth projects included as part of the 2012-14 Capital Budget documents, CKUA is looking for a $5 million grant from the City of Edmonton to help it move into the rebuilt Alberta Hotel.
• Avenue Edmonton’s August issue is going to focus on Edmonton’s Best Neighbourhoods. You can help by completing their survey. Which neighbourhood do you think is best?
• Among the latest inductees into the Hockey Hall of Fame was Edmonton’s own Terry Jones. Here’s a great profile at NHL.com. And here’s an ode to Terry by Cam Cole.
• Edmonton native John Roberts has returned to our city as the new Program Director at Capital FM. He fills one of the positions that opened up when Patrick Cardinal moved to Astral in August.
• Duane English shared his final forecast for Global Edmonton on Friday. He’s off to BC.
• The Canadian Innovation Exchange (CIX) has partnered with Edmonton’s own Empire Avenue to create a virtual stock exchange for Canada’s top digital media and ICT companies. It’s great to see a locally founded social media play gaining traction elsewhere in the country!
• Here is Karen’s Edmonton New Media Roundup from last week. Watch for her next update!
• Following a successful field trial over a 350km network between Calgary and Edmonton, Shaw has launched the nation’s first 100 Gigabit per second fibre-optic network. That’s ten times faster than Shaw’s existing fibre-optic network! You can learn more about the new packages here.
• Today was the kickoff for the Christmas Bureau’s annual campaign, and that meant gingerbread house decorating for the local media! The Journal has a gallery of the gingerbread houses here. CBC’s house won “most festive”. Here’s a look at the Up! 99.3 team. Here’s the always shameless BT Edmonton gingerbread house. Here’s the SONiC 102.9 house. Nice branding on The Unknown Studio’s house! I’m sad I couldn’t be there today, but it looks like everyone had a great time!
• Think back to February 4, 2011. That’s the day CFMG-FM switched from EZ Rock to Virgin Radio. What was your first thought? For many Edmontonians, it was probably something like “what about the Christmas music?!” Well fear not, Lite 95.7 has got you covered! They switched to 100% Christmas music at noon on Saturday and will continue like that for the rest of the holiday season.

• But wait, they aren’t the only ones with Christmas music! You can also get 100% Christmas music at up! 99.3 FM – they also switched over the weekend, and will be playing nothing but until Box Day. And talk about taking it to the next level – their website even features a Christmas fireplace Ustream!

• This is a long read, but it’s worth it. Michael Shapiro, writing for the Columbia Journalism Review, examines how The San Jose Mercury News nearly seized the future. Lots of great lessons and takeaways from this, for all of us, but especially those of you working at mainstream media organizations that might be finding it difficult to embrace change.
• A new report that examines how mainstream media outlets use Twitter made the rounds today. Though I find the sample size (3600 tweets over the course of a week) ridiculously small, I am not terribly surprised that the central finding is mainstream media outlets use Twitter primarily to promote their own stuff.
• Social Media Breakfast #12 is coming up on Friday, November 25.
• And since there are just 12 tickets remaining as I write this, I better give you the heads up on CTV Edmonton’s Charity Tweetup, taking place on November 29. You’ll get to tour the  studios, meet the personalities, and witness a live CTV evening newscast. Very cool idea – I hope they do it again!
• This Venn diagram comes from the latest Edmonton Journal newsletter, and shows that according to the Fall 2010-11 NADbank results, “there are only 37,200 people who visit the Sun’s site exclusively each week.” It seems specifically calling out the Edmonton Sun isn’t common practice for The Journal, so I thought that was interesting.

  

• Lots of great information in Marty Forbes’ column from October 31. He notes that NOW 102.3 recently received its 1-millionth text message since debuting just 18 months ago.

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.