The Daily Miracle: Exaggerated, but only slightly

February 9, 2010 – 4:16 am| Posted in Media

(From left) Arthur Holden, Jean-Guy Bouchard, Ellen David, Sheena Gazé-Deslandes and Howard Rosenstein in David Sherman's The Daily Miracle

Over the weekend, I joined a group of journalists (in fact, two distinct groups - one veteran and one up-and-coming) to see a production of the Infinitheatre play The Daily Miracle, written by former Gazette copy editor David Sherman.

I'll spare you the usual theatre review stuff, because (a) I'm not a theatre critic and (b) it's already been talked about in The Gazette (along with a feature article), La Presse, Mirror, Hour, the Suburban, the West Island Chronicle, the McGill Tribune, the Concordian, the Link, Le Quatrième and maybe some other places too.

We'd first heard about this play years ago, when Sherman left his copy editing job at The Gazette. By the time he made his leave permanent to become a playwright (and work on his first play Have a Heart for Centaur), there were rumours floating that he would use the copy desk as the basis for a production - and the editors potentially as models for his characters.

I should add here that I know Sherman - he was a copy editor when I was an intern at The Gazette, and he was one of the people who I got the most on-the-job training from.

Though I got a sneak preview at a reading a while back, the people I went with on Saturday didn't quite know what to expect from this play. Though the name of the newspaper is the Montreal Star (taken from the former newspaper of the same name - they even used the same logo on computer screens and papers on set) and its parent company is called WestPress, it's pretty clear which major newspaper the play is based on. Even some of the characters are familiar, either as composites (Gazé-Deslandes's Carrie, the pretty young desk intern) or as near-ripoffs (Jean-Guy Bouchard's Roland reminded most of my former colleagues of a particular person with a similar personality and accent).

But what's most familiar is the work. The play, staged at the Bain St-Michel (literally inside a pool that had been converted into a theatre) is set in real time, between the 10:30pm first edition deadline and the midnight final. It's a time when copy editors and other night staff get chatty (the stress of making first edition deadline having just been lifted) and start airing their grievances with the paper and the news industry, along with spreading personal gossip.

It's hard to evaluate the play objectively because I'm so familiar with what it's based on. It's the life I lived for three and a half years at The Gazette. I know the terminology, I know the stress, and I know the characters and their roles.

Still, for the benefit of those who don't work on a copy desk, I can tell you that what happens in this play is a dramatization. I for one never saw anyone come to work five hours late, pop pills like they were candy and start sexually assaulting his coworkers. But maybe it's just because I wasn't there in the old days.

One of the people who saw the play the same night as me was Thomas de Lorimier, who works as a copy editor at La Presse. He agreed that there was a lot more drama here than you'd see on a normal night (but then, that what we'd want in an entertaining play, right?) but that the elements of the characters' personalities and the way things work are what you'll find on the copy desk of a major newspaper. A line about how disasters in China need a triple-digit death count before becoming news is entirely true. Having a picture of a pop diva on the cover solely because she's famous and she performed at the Bell Centre that night is also spot on, as are the staff's reactions to the burying of (what they considered to be) real news in order to emphasize fluff.

One thing de Lorimier and I both agreed on that was missing from the play was pun-offs. That's when an editor takes a story and makes a really bad pun (like saying Haiti's "all shook up") and other editors jump in with even worse ones. It's part defence mechanism against the horrors of life they're exposed to on a daily basis, and partly a way to hone their skills as wordsmiths.

It's a skill Sherman clearly doesn't need too much help with, judging by this play.

If you're interested in getting a dramatic look at a newspaper's news desk on deadline, The Daily Miracle is a good way to spend an evening. It's on every night until Sunday, Feb. 14. Details at Infinitheatre.com

Post a comment
Tags: , , ,

Metro knows foreign affairs

February 9, 2010 – 2:52 am| Posted in Media

All Ukrainian Viktors look alike to Metro (from Feb. 8 issue)

I guess the person who edited this page isn't familiar with Ukraine, its politics or that whole Orange Revolution thing.

(Did I mention I'm available for editing work?)

Post a comment
Tags: ,

‘Dem front pages

February 8, 2010 – 12:14 pm| Posted in In the news, Media, Sports

Victory:

Read More »

Comments (3)
Tags: ,

Montreal Geography Trivia No. 68

February 8, 2010 – 12:00 pm| Posted in Montreal, Pop quiz

What is the significance of the shaded area of this map?

UPDATE: COOL FAT MICHAEL FROM THE JERSEY SHORE ‘87 and Jim both got the right answer: these are the borders of the village, town, city and ward of Sainte-Cunégonde, sandwiched between St. Henri (whose eastern border was Atwater) and Montreal.

Not only was this independent city tiny (in 1840 it had 10 inhabitants), it was also short-lived. It was developed after it was bought by Alexandre Delisle and William Workman around 1850. At first, it relied heavily on bordering St. Henri for basic services like schools and a church, but the village's inhabitants, upset with the distance they'd have to travel and the taxes they'd have to pay, wanted some of their own.

Ste. Cunégonde was founded as a parish in 1875, taking its name from Cunégonde de Luxembourg. It was incorporated in 1887 and became its own city in 1890.

But around the turn of the century, Ste. Cunégonde faced the same fate as many other towns around Montreal at the time: merger. In 1905 it became a ward of the city of Montreal. By the midpoint of the 20th century, the boundaries ceased to have any meaning.

Today, the only remnants of the town are the buildings (including the old Sainte-Cunégonde church, now the Korean Catholic Mission on St. Jacques), and the street and park named after it.

For more on the village, you can read this book, published in 1893 by E.Z. Massicotte.

Comments (16)
Tags:

PJ’s first days at CHOM

February 7, 2010 – 2:03 pm| Posted in Radio

From left: Chantal Desjardins, Pete Marier and PJ Stock, the morning crew at CHOM

There are a lot of people on the Internet who don't like PJ Stock. The former NHL player (who had twice as many penalty minutes as games played) has jumped into media in his retirement, as an analyst with Hockey Night in Canada and until recently a show host at the Team 990. He has been criticized for everything from being clueless about hockey to having a tenuous grasp of the rules of English grammar (not that I agree with these criticisms).

On Wednesday, two days after his contract expired at the Team 990, Stock officially joined the morning team at CHOM-FM, effectively replacing the departing Ted Bird.

It's odd that PJ is considered a full member of the team because he's only present half the time. The deal is he comes in from 7 to 9 Mondays to Thursdays (Desjardins and Marier do the full show from 5:30 to 9 Mondays to Fridays). And even when he's present, it's mostly Marier doing the talking. Desjardins reads the news and Stock reads sports (Abe Hefter is still reading sports news while Stock isn't present).

Aside from the peanut-gallery comments that are common throughout the show, Stock's actual talk time is about 10 minutes a day. This includes "Stock Options" (the latest bad pun on his name), a sports commentary segment at 7:20am. (Day 1, Stock criticized the Canadiens for being overhyped - hardly a unique idea. On Day 2, he criticized the media for not being more hostile to Tiger Woods's wife for allegedly attacking him with a golf club - something even Marier wasn't comfortable endorsing.)

Rather than try to summarize it all, I'll let you listen to compilations of his sports reports and banter from his first two days:

Day 2 includes his first major blooper, when he couldn't figure out how to turn on his microphone.

Stock the jock

It's clear from his first days on CHOM that Stock is the sports guy. If you don't like sports, and you don't like how much time is spent on the radio talking about sports and the Canadiens in particular (there are people who listen to CHOM who don't like sports, believe it or not), then you're not going to like PJ Stock.

Hell, even if you're a die-hard Canadiens fan, you might not like Stock. He calls it "Pete Marier's favourite team" and doesn't seem to share his city's blind support for the bleu-blanc-rouge.

Otherwise, Stock is comfortable on the radio. He's not awkward, he doesn't slur his speech or say "umm" a lot. He's not a radio professional by any means but he fits in well.

I don't know how long this weird schedule can last though. It's understandable that Stock wouldn't want to get up at 4am the morning after a Habs game, and that travel to and from Toronto might make him unavailable on Fridays, but this just highlights the fact that to Stock, Hockey Night in Canada comes first and his job at CHOM comes second.

I have a feeling that, eventually, he's going to have to choose between the two.

Comments (5)
Tags: ,

Six ways for Montrealers to watch U.S. Super Bowl ads

February 6, 2010 – 4:30 pm| Posted in Montreal, Sports, TV

For 364 days a year, Canadians don't care about what the CRTC calls "simultaneous substitution" - the policy whereby cable and satellite providers replace a U.S. channel with a Canadian one when both are running the same program. (The logic behind this is so the Canadian station gets all the Canadian viewers and can charge higher advertising rates.)

For Montrealers especially, the U.S. ads are pretty forgettable. Local ads for Burlington businesses or ads for products and services that Canadians don't get. Besides, commercials in general are meant to be ignored. Nobody really cares whether the Ford ad lists prices in Canadian or U.S. dollars.

But then there's Super Bowl Sunday. And while the Saints and Colts fight for the National Football League's championship trophy, many television viewers will be looking at the full experience, which includes a halftime show and insanely-expensive commercials. Advertisers turn Super Bowl commercials into events, building up hype and spending through the nose on celebrities and special effects to justify the through-the-nose spending they're doing just to get the airtime.

So if you're a Montrealer watching the Super Bowl and want the U.S. commercials, what can you do?

Here are your options:

  1. Watch WCAX-DT over the air. As much as the CRTC would like, it can't stop U.S. stations from transmitting across the border. So you can hook up an antenna and watch it that way. The CBS affiliate in Vermont broadcasts from the top of Mount Mansfield, which gives it good coverage in Montreal if you have a good antenna. The catch is that since last year it's broadcasting only in digital, which means you need a television with a digital tuner (most recent HDTVs have this) or a converter box (like this one or this one). (Also note, for antenna purposes, the WCAX-DT transmits on the UHF band, not VHF as it did on analog) Elias Makos has more details for Montrealers wanting to watch U.S. stations over the air.
  2. Watch WCAX-DT on Videotron Illico digital TV (Channel 653). Videotron has announced that it will leave the CBS station's HD feed untouched during the game, instead of replacing it with the equivalent CTV feed. It can do this because of two rules about simultaneous substitution: that the Canadian signal be of equal or superior quality to the U.S. one, and that the substitution happen in an area covered by the Canadian station's over-the-air signal. Because CFCF is not yet transmitting over the air in HD (it has an HD feed that it makes available to providers), Videotron is not obliged to replace WCAX's HD signal with either the standard definition or high definition feeds of CFCF. Note that this is only for people with HD service. WCAX's standard definition signal on Channel 53 will be replaced by CFCF on Illico.
  3. Watch WWJ-DT (Detroit) or KIRO-DT (Seattle) on Shaw Direct. For the same reasons as Videotron, Shaw Direct is not required to substitute the U.S. high definition signal for the local one in Montreal. Again, this only applies to the high definition signal. (via Digital Home)
  4. Watch the game on Bell TV. The CRTC closed a loophole last year that would have allowed Bell to give most of its subscribers access to the U.S. Super Bowl feed. If you use Bell TV satellite service, you're out of luck.
  5. Go to a bar or a friend's house. Some bars, like Winnie's and Winston Churchill's Pub, are advertising that they'll be carrying the "American broadcast" of the game, complete with U.S. commercials. Whether the bar has the U.S. feed available probably depends on whether they use Videotron, Shaw or Bell for their TV service.
  6. Watch the ads online. These advertisers aren't about to sue people who put their ads online, and they're more than welcome to you watching them as many times as you want after the game. YouTube and Spike TV have special sites setup with Super Bowl commercials. The latter includes an archive of past Super Bowl ads. (UPDATE: Adweek has a section on Super Bowl ads too)
Comments (9)
Tags: , ,

Tou.tv, not quite tout

February 5, 2010 – 4:49 am| Posted in TV, Technology

3600 secondes d'extase is all over Tou.tv. Marc Labrèche will show his face anywhere.

In case you hadn't noticed from coverage by La Presse, Canoe, Rue Frontenac, Branchez-Vous, MSN, Radio-Canada and, like, every other news media in Quebec, Radio-Canada last week launched tou.tv, a video portal with content from Radio-Canada but also some other television networks like Télé-Québec, TV5, ARTV, TFO and others, including some European francophone channels. (The inevitable comparisons to Hulu followed quickly, even though Canadians can't use Hulu and therefore don't have much basis for comparison).

Notably absent from that list are V, the former TQS network that already puts all its content online on its own website, and anything owned by Quebecor, including TVA. Quebecor's strategy is to leverage its video content to improve the bottom line for its Videotron cable service. So the only way to get TVA shows on demand is to use Videotron's Illico video-on-demand service (which has most TVA content for free).

Still, even if it was just Radio-Canada stuff, it would be pretty cool. I'd finally get a chance to see two of my favourite shows - Tout le monde en parle and Infoman - on demand (I usually miss the initial airings of both).

Oh but wait, neither show is part of Tou.tv's vast repertoire.

How can that be? They're both Radio-Canada series. And because they're both about the news, you'd think they'd have a short shelf life. Wouldn't you want them to get maximum exposure in a short period of time? Are people going to buy DVDs of these shows in three years? (Well, maybe...)

Despite being on Facebook and Twitter, Tou.tv hasn't been communicating very well with users. Its first response on Twitter came a week after it launched, in which it reassured me (don't I feel special) that it's just getting started. I can understand that, though there's still a lot of viewer inquiries and stuff that's not being responded to, making it seem like it's being ignored.

There's also technical problems, like videos freezing halfway through, or (as I experienced) not being able to resume after a long pause. But I can understand that too, assuming they eventually fix it.

So what's up with TLMEP and Infoman? I sought out to inquire. I sent messages to Radio-Canada (for both shows), and to the production houses behind those shows: Avanti Ciné Video and Les productions Jacques K Primeau (TLMEP) and Zone 3 (Infoman). The only response I got was from Radio-Canada's Marie Tetreault, who said that they couldn't include these programs because of rights issues. (One of those annoying problems that even forced them to temporarily pull their own launch video).

"Il n'est pas prévu d'offrir la version intégrale en différé de Tout le monde en parle" was the final word.

So those hoping that these shows would soon be added to Tou.tv, don't hold your breath. They'll have the entire series of Et Dieu créa ... Laflaque!, Virginie, Tout sur moi, and the RBO Bye-Byes, but two of its biggest shows won't be added because Radio-Canada doesn't want to go through whatever trouble is necessary to secure the appropriate rights.

I could understand if this was a 20-year-old TV show, conceived long before the Internet existed, and which has some rights holders who can't be reached or something, but surely RadCan can come to some arrangement with its own shows to clear online on-demand rights for new episodes.

Right?

Comments (3)
Tags: ,

TRAM 3 at Longueuil: Right decision for the wrong reason

February 4, 2010 – 10:48 pm| Posted in Montreal, Opinion, Public transit

This morning, apparently, the Montreal Metropolitan Community (which coordinates issues affecting Montreal and its suburbs) decided that, beginning in July, the Longueuil metro station would be subjected to the same fare rules as those in Laval: Montreal passes would not be accepted, and users would instead need a TRAM 3 multi-zone pass to enter the station.

The news came out not through the STM or the MMC, but via Longueuil mayor Caroline St-Hilaire, who sent out a press release expressing her outrage:

"Je ne peux pas et je ne vais pas cautionner ça!", a déclaré Caroline St-Hilaire, en indiquant que toutes les dispositions nécessaires seront prises pour que l'entente signée et valide jusqu'en décembre 2011 soit respectée.

This led to stories at Radio-Canada, Cyberpresse and Rue Frontenac, which follow the narrative St-Hilaire has created. Metro goes a bit further, adding that about a quarter of people who use the Longueuil metro use the $70 CAM instead of the $111 TRAM 3. (UPDATE: The STM's Odile Paradis says it's more like 15% of users, or 3,000 to 4,000 people.) The TRAM 3 gives access to the Réseau de transport de Longueuil bus network and the Agence métropolitaine de transport's commuter trains in Longueuil.

Why this change? Well, it makes sense, especially considering what's going on in Laval. The AMT has established zones for transit that crosses into multiple territories, and Longueuil is clearly in Zone 3. The fact that it accepts CAMs just like the rest of the STM network is more historical than anything. That's just the way it's been.

Even St-Hilaire accepted, it seems, that this would eventually change after 2011. But she's mad that Montreal and the STM appear to have gone back on their word and is doing this ahead of schedule.

(The Parti Québécois, meanwhile, jumps on an opportunity to pander to suburban voters and demands that government step in to not only reverse the decision but to reduce the fares for Laval users as well.)

This is happening, St-Hilaire says, because of Laval mayor Gilles Vaillancourt, who is refusing to pay for Laval's share of the taxpayer cost of the metro because he feels his city is being discriminated against. So he decided to take the transit system hostage until Montreal acquiesced to his demand that Longueuil be treated the same as the Laval stations.

Ironically, while this decision would theoretically mean that Laval will start paying its share, the release also says that Longueuil will refuse to pay its share for the metro until further notice.

Vaillancourt, meanwhile, says his city will now start paying its share of the STM's metro deficit, but it won't pay retroactively for the years that Laval paid more and Longueuil paid less.

This is absolutely ridiculous. These mayors are all acting like children, and apparently no adult is either able or willing to step in. Instead of suing Laval so the city lives up to its contract, or having the provincial government step in and order them to respect their agreement, everyone is acting as if Vaillancourt has a legitimate bargaining chip in his hand and is bending over.

Can I start refusing to hand over tax money until I get free pizza delivered to my apartment?

Still a good idea

If St-Hilaire is right and there is an agreement until 2011, then the decision should be overturned and postponed until then. But requiring a TRAM 3 pass at Longueuil just makes sense.

The people who will be affected by the change are people who don't use the RTL bus network, either because they live near the metro station (a tiny minority) or because they drive to it in their cars. We're talking about 3-4,000 people, including those who park in the 2,370 parking spaces outside the Longueuil metro. And to park there, they have to pay about $100 a month in parking fees. In other words, if they're taking the bus from home and using a TRAM 3, they will pay significantly less ($111) than they did parking at the Longueuil metro and using a CAM to get into the station ($170). Less convenient, but cheaper.

Perhaps there's a group of people I haven't considered who would be driven into bankruptcy by this decision, but I can't imagine they will be a large number.

Of course, St-Hilaire loses nothing by taking the stand she takes. Longueuil people like to use their cars, and they like not having to pay for things if they can get away with it. Just like everyone else.

It's time for Longueuil to realize that it is a suburb, and transit is more expensive there because of that. And it's time for politicians in all three cities to realize that holding your breath and screaming "NO NO NO!" is not a valid negotiation tactic.

At least, I desperately hope it's not.

UPDATE (Feb. 5): Nathalie Collard of La Presse agrees that this is silly, as does Projet Montréal, which suggests reducing the number of trains going to Laval and Longueuil.

La Presse also has a vox pop on the subject, and you can imagine what the opinion of the populace is.

Comments (49)
Tags: , ,

Bill Tierney replaces Huntley Addie as West Island Gazette columnist

February 4, 2010 – 4:49 am| Posted in Media, West Island

Out: Huntley Addie

Those expecting to see the weekly column of Huntley Addie in the West Island Gazette last Thursday (you know, all four of you) might have been surprised to see someone else in that place: former Ste. Anne de Bellevue mayor Bill Tierney.

Tierney, who had been mayor of the city since 1994 (excluding the time it was a merged part of Montreal), lost the November election, apparently because citizens didn't like his idea of having parking meters.

With all this free time on his hands now (tell me about it), he's been invited to write a weekly column about West Island issues in the section of the Gazette distributed to subscribers in West Island and western off-island areas.

In: Bill Tierney

When asked what happened, Addie, a teacher at John Rennie High School in Pointe Claire, told me it sort of goes back to the Canwest creditor protection filing, which screwed him as much as it did every other freelancer. It made him realize that he's doing far too much work for far too little pay (West Island Gazette columnists are paid $50 per 700-word piece, or about seven cents a word). So he kind of resigned, reluctantly. Or maybe it's more accurate to say that he gave up.

You can read Tierney's first column here. His second column, published today, is about apathy in local politics.

Comments (3)
Tags: , ,

West Island newspaper editors give up on former jobs

February 4, 2010 – 4:04 am| Posted in Media, West Island

A month after their positions were eliminated, and after surprising their bosses by saying they would not accept demotions, the editors of the West Island Chronicle and Cités Nouvelles have both confirmed that they're not going back to their jobs. Negotiations between their union and Transcontinental Media general manager Serge Lemieux did not result in a decision favourable to them, and they're leaving their newspapers.

For reasons that are still unclear, Lemieux apparently agreed to consider reinstating the editor position at Cités Nouvelles, but not the Chronicle. Both newspapers previously had one editor and one reporter. Even then, Marie-Claude Simard said she wouldn't be interested in returning to her job at Cités Nouvelles.

So all that's left for her and Albert Kramberger is to discuss their severance packages.

Of the four journalists at the two newspapers, only Olivier Laniel of Cités Nouvelles is still there. His reporting has been the only news in either paper since the beginning of January (his Cités Nouvelles articles are translated for the Chronicle). Raffy Boudjikanian, his former counterpart at the Chronicle, has already moved on and has been getting some work at the CBC.

One journalist covering the entire West Island for two newspapers.

It's possible Transcontinental might choose to hire someone new, at least for the Chronicle. Maybe they'll pick some eager kid straight out of university. And that kid will jump into a job with a lot of responsibility and little pay, and wonder: How did I get so lucky to land this job?

It's amazing how much history can be erased with a simple turnover.

Comments (2)
Tags: , ,

They call him sexy

February 3, 2010 – 9:00 am| Posted in Radio, Video

Want to see Tommy Schnurmacher dancing?

Me neither. So don't press play on this video.

More of Tommy and Laura from the CJAD YouTube channel.

Comments (6)
Tags: ,

You’re listening to an Astral Media radio station

February 2, 2010 – 2:38 pm| Posted in Montreal, Radio

November 2007 newspaper ad

This is part of an ad that appeared in The Gazette in November 2007, reassuring listeners after Standard Radio was purchased by Astral Media that their radio stations wouldn't suddenly change.

Since then:

"Please be assured of our commitment to continue providing the same great listening pleasure you have come to enjoy," the ad said. "Respect for our broadcast audience and the public in general is a core value of Astral Media."

I'll leave it to you to judge, based on their subsequent actions, whether Astral Media stuck to their word.

Comments (10)
Tags: , , ,

CHOM changes logo, pretends it’s more than that

February 1, 2010 – 11:27 pm| Posted in Opinion, Radio

CHOM's new logo

That's CHOM's new logo.

No, seriously.

No, seriously.

They launched it this morning, to great fanfare:

With PJ Stock joining the morning show this week (it will be "Chantal, PJ and Bad Pete"), it made sense to do it now. CHOM had risked being the only Montreal music station not undergoing a bullshit renaissance over the past year (see Mix 96, Q92, Énergie).

They made a big deal of it on the morning show, though I can't figure out what other than the logo is changing. The tagline is still "The Spirit of Rock", and it sounds like the music is still going to be the same (Pete Marier made a vague reference to "nicely tempoed rock and roll"). The press release makes mention of "more music" (sound familiar?), but gives little details. It lists three bands: 30 Seconds to Mars, Cavo and Shinedown (three bands I've never heard of) as examples of music that will "now strengthen the core of music that CHOM listeners love", whatever that means. Listening to their music just now, I can't say that makes me terribly optimistic.

But, it also reassures loyal CHOM listeners that Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Pink Floyd and Metallica aren't going anywhere.

You can listen to their new audio branding here, which sounds pretty indistinguishable from their old branding if you ask me.

The logo

CHOM's old logos are everywhere, they're familiar, and they feel like the kinds of logos you'd find on a classic rock station:

CHOM's old bumper-sticker logo

With a 2002 redesign, it kept the red and black motif, even if it lost some of its charm. Still, it was clean and simple. Professional, even if a bit too corporate:

CHOM's most recent logo

This new monstrosity of a logo looks like it was cooked up by a 14-year-old in his basement using Adobe Illustrator. The black and orange seem to evoke a Harley Davidson-esque feel* (without being so similar that they'd get sued over it), but other than that there doesn't seem to be any reason behind it. Why orange? Why something that looks like an American highway sign? (Is it because Tom Cochrane's Life Is A Highway is going to be even more overplayed?) Why go overboard on the simulated gradients?

*UPDATE (Feb. 2): Apparently it's no coincidence. Their contest of the week involves giving out a Harley Davidson motorcycle.

Why is there nothing about this logo that makes me think of Montreal or rock music?

It's been compared to a U.S. hockey team's logo. I can't think of a worse insult.

If this is CHOM's "new baby", I'm just going to have to be brutally honest: It's a really ugly baby.

Comments (26)
Tags: , ,

More Canwest news

February 1, 2010 – 9:56 pm| Posted in Media

Since I'm now a former Canwest employee, I guess I don't have to include that disclaimer anymore.

Some tidbits of news since Canwest's newspaper arm filed for bankruptcy protection in early January:

The Financial Post, which is owned by Canwest and may be part of a sale (but which isn't under creditor protection) has a fair picture of what parties might be involved in this asset auction, with pros and cons for each. For most companies, the bottom line seems to be "not interested."

Post a comment
Tags: , ,

Ted Bird joins Gazette as a blogger

February 1, 2010 – 9:24 pm| Posted in Media

Speaking of unemployed people in local media, Ted Bird (you know, the guy who left CHOM at the beginning of the year) is now blogging for The Gazette.

Bird wouldn't say how much (if anything) he's being paid for the gig, but he's "happy with the exposure and the chance to establish myself in print."

He's continuing to blog on his own as well. So those who miss his opinions won't be left wanting.

Post a comment
Tags: , ,

Another unemployed journalist

February 1, 2010 – 8:48 pm| Posted in Navel-gazing

Farewell, dual-display Mac G5

As of 1:30am today, I am no longer an employee of The Gazette (a division of Canwest Publishing Inc.)

It happened so long ago that most of this blog's readers probably don't remember, but I was hired as a temporary, part-time worker at The Gazette in January 2008. Back in 2005 I was picked as an intern, and stayed on for an extra year on contract before I was let go the first time. When a vacancy came up a year later because of two parental leaves, I got an email from my old boss asking me if I wanted to come back. I didn't hesitate.

The contract was supposed to last nine weeks. But it got extended, and extended again, and again. Finally, with the person I was replacing returning to the payroll, my contract wasn't renewed past Jan. 31. The nine-week contract ended Sunday night at 105 weeks plus a day.

All this to say that the split is amicable (sad for both sides, but amicable). It's not in any way related to Canwest's creditor protection filing, nor anything I did. That said, it isn't completely disconnected from the crisis facing media, and copy editing in particular (the Miami Herald yesterday looked at how many grammatical mistakes make it into a newspaper on a daily basis because of the reduced number of copy editors).

Though I'm obviously not happy about getting dropped out of my dream job, I'm grateful for the opportunity I got to live it for those two years. I want to publicly thank my colleagues, whose help, guidance and awful puns are what I will truly miss most about working there, and what I will most look forward to if I'm ever given the opportunity to work there again. I especially want to thank Assistant Managing Editor Katherine Sedgwick, who was my boss for most of my time there, and who emailed me out of the blue two years ago asking me if I wanted to come back. Her ability to judge character is obviously well above par.

As for my future, it's up to me to write it now. I have no plans to leave the city unless some irresistible opportunity shows up. And my goal is to stay in the field of journalism. But that's a tall order with everything that's happening to the news media.

But I'm not thinking too much about that yet. I didn't take a single day off while I worked at the Gazette, and so my immediate plans are to make up for that by taking it easy for a bit. My last paycheque doesn't come for a week and a half, and it'll include all the banked overtime I never ended up using. That, plus all the money I've saved up means I'm not desperate for a job right now, and I can take my time figuring out my next move. And spend more time with my family, I guess. That's what the politicians do, right?

In the meantime, my loss will probably be your gain. I'll have more time to blog about stuff. My browser is just about ready to burst with all the tabs it's got open. I hope to clear some of that out and post some of the ideas that have been circulating in my head this week.

My relationship with The Gazette also hasn't been completely severed. I plan to continue freelancing for them (notably compiling the Monday Calendar), and am exploring other opportunities, as they say.

Some people have asked if I would consider blogging full-time, monetizing this little experiment I'm running. I'd do it in a second if I thought it could be profitable, but I don't think that's feasible yet. I may change my mind on that depending on how desperate I get for cash, or how desperate people are to advertise here.

I certainly won't be holding my breath for that.

Unless I can turn holding my breath into a job.

UPDATE: I'm really feeling the love, in the comments below and on Twitter. Unfortunately, I can't trade that in for a career just yet.

Comments (31)
Tags: ,

Some Sunday reading on Haiti

January 31, 2010 – 5:58 pm| Posted in In the news, Media

It's been almost three weeks since a powerful earthquake struck Haiti, leading to the deaths of over 150,000 people, leaving hundreds of thousands more injured, homeless or without access to the necessities of life.

Despite the various crises affecting the news media, the response has been immense, especially in Montreal, which has a large Haitian community. The major newspaper chains have sent reporters and photographers (and have now sent relief crews to replace those they originally sent), the TV networks have sent correspondents, almost every TV network in Quebec, Canada and the United States has aired a fundraiser for relief efforts, and Haiti coverage continues to dominate the news here. The question of whether it's being covered too much was raised over a week ago.

I admit I was a bit surprised by all this attention. I expected major news organizations to send reporters, but not papers like The Gazette, the Journal de Québec or the Toronto Star. After all, it's not cheap.

But as grateful as I am for all the attention, I've started to zone out with the Haiti coverage. Yes, there are lots of orphans, people are desperate, lots of people died. The anecdotes being told by the reporters are touching, but they kind of blend in after the 100th story or so.

Still, even more than two weeks later, there are still some stories worth reading. Here's a few that have been recommended to me through social media:

  • Sue Montgomery, who left for Haiti shortly after the earthquake for The Gazette, writes about the experience of rushing to a disaster area on short notice. A lot of it is inside journalistic baseball (which makes it perfect for this blog's readers), but it's interesting to read just for the little anecdotes, like running outside half-naked during an aftershock, or paying $6,900 for a helicopter ride from the Dominican Republic.
  • Phil Carpenter, the photographer who was sent with Montgomery, also writes about the experience for J-Source.
  • Montgomery, in turn, recommends this piece by Peggy Curran, about the political history of Haiti and how much of a mess the country was in long before the earthquake hit. It's a good picture of what happened to this country from the time it was discovered by Christopher Columbus to the reign of the Duvaliers.
  • Patrick Lagacé is tired of the bullshit going on in Haiti, from all parties involved. About how Haitians still believe in their country, despite the absolute mess it's in. About how passive they are. About how the international community still clings to the idea that Haiti has some sort of government.
  • In the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof isn't anywhere near Haiti. Instead, he's in Congo, where millions have died and gangs of thugs go around killing and raping people, and no one seems to care. He just wishes we paid as much attention to the non-natural disaster there as we did to the earthquake. (He has more on his blog.)
Comments (13)
Tags: ,

Le Devoir discovers YouTube

January 30, 2010 – 3:45 pm| Posted in Media, Video

Michel David talks about politics and the changing media landscape.

Le Devoir has launched a YouTube channel, which features interviews with some of its artisans. Now we don't just have to imagine them being snooty about stuff, we can see it too.

There's also Benoit Munger talking about the website, but I didn't get anything new out of it.

Comments (1)
Tags:

Corus shuts down AM stations Info 690, 940 Hits

January 29, 2010 – 1:15 pm| Posted in Montreal, Radio

At 10 a.m. today, Corus ended programming on two AM stations in the city: CINF 690 AM (Info 690) and CINW 940 AM (940 Hits, formerly 940 News). Both are currently looping messages from station managers (with ominous intro music) explaining that the "current economic climate" has made continued operations impossible:

The shutdown cuts eight jobs at CINF, and two jobs (announcer Jim Connell and one technician) at CINW. The Corus Nouvelles newsroom, which laid off a dozen people a year ago, will continue operations, mainly feeding the talk station CHMP 98.5 FM. Three journalists, two traffic reporters and three operators will lose their jobs, while five journalists and three traffic reporters will move to CHMP.

Both stations began in December 1999, when they were owned by Metromedia. CINF began as CKVL in 1946, and spent half a century at 850 AM, before changing callsign and frequency and taking an all-news format. More details at the Canadian Communications Foundation.

CINW began as XWA in 1919, eventually becoming CFCF (the television station's call letters were taken from the radio station's, which stood for "Canada's First, Canada's Finest") and then CIQC in 1991. It spent just shy of 80 years on the same frequency. Its experiment in all-news was tweaked in 2005 with the adoption of news-talk format similar to CJAD and the hiring of hosts who were branded as opinionative like Aphrodite Salas and former CBMT anchor Dennis Trudeau. It failed completely in 2008 with the firing of almost all its staff and the switch to all-hits programming. Since then the station has been dead-last or close to it in the ratings. More details at the Canadian Communications Foundation.

Both stations ceased transmitting at 7:02 p.m. No fanfare, no countdown, not even a national anthem. They just stopped.

Coverage at CTV Montreal, LCN, Radio-Canada, The Gazette, CBC, or Corus Nouvelles itself (which copies a Presse Canadienne story). Blog posts from Maxime Landry and Sophie Cousineau.

Corus employees won't be making any public statements about the shutdown, instead referring people to a PR agency. Still, one disgruntled employee emailed me, complaining that a very small number of companies own far too many broadcast outlets, and the CRTC needs to step in.

UPDATE (Feb. 1): Jim Connell, the on-air personality laid off as a result of 940's closing, was on CFCF News at Noon today, lamenting the death spiral of AM radio.

So what now?

The release says Corus will surrender its licenses for the two frequencies to the CRTC. This means two clear channels (those that don't have to reduce power to avoid interference at night, meaning their signals carry much farther) are up for grabs. (Both frequencies were used by many years by CBC Radio - 690 in French and 940 in English - before both moved to FM and the all-news stations took up the channels). According to Wikipedia's list, the only other clear channel in Montreal is CKAC. A decade ago this would have been a huge opportunity. Half a century ago station managers would kill for even a chance at getting one of these.

But in the current media environment, the question is more whether anyone would bother.

Various theories are being brought up on the local radio discussion group, including:

  • CJAD should move to 940 from 800 to take advantage of the clear channel. This was brought up last time the channel was available, but CJAD dismissed the idea, preferring its spot on the dial, which it considered easier to find.
  • CBME-FM (CBC Radio One) should simulcast on 940 AM to reach more listeners. CBC dealt with the coverage issue by setting up a network of FM repeaters, including 104.7 FM in NDG. It's unclear if there are enough people having trouble receiving the station to warrant the expense of running an AM transmitter.
  • Rogers, which owns a chain of all-news AM radio stations including CFTR 680News in Toronto, could setup a station here.

Other stations, especially those in the extended AM broadcast band like CJLO 1690, would definitely benefit from moving to the lower frequency and increasing their power. Or some new player (Rogers, perhaps?) could come in and setup a new AM radio station.

But the future of AM radio in particular doesn't prompt much optimism. New portable media players, if they have radio receivers at all, only do FM. AM radio has a smaller bandwidth, meaning the sound is less clear, and it's more susceptible to interference. Even the CBC realized that when it moved all its Montreal stations to FM.

As for the all-news format, I think there's definitely room for something coming up on the French side, with CKAC concentrating on sports, CHMP doing talk (and simulcasting a lot of CKAC, including Habs games) and leaving Radio-Canada alone on news. But on the English side, CJAD and CBC will be tough competition for any new entrant. One will take away any serious news listeners, and the other will take away the rabid angryphones who want to call in constantly to complain that there's too many potholes.

We'll see what kind of interest there is when the CRTC puts the two channels on the block.

Until then, the shutdown gives a rare opportunity to listen to far-away stations without interference from local frequencies. I got lots of stuff late at night from both newly created holes, stations overlapping each other to the point where I couldn't really understand any of them. The best I could hear was WEAV 960AM in Plattsburgh, which was carrying Sean Hannity when I tuned in.

Comments (28)
Tags: , , ,

Light it, Stéphane and Sandra

January 29, 2010 – 3:59 am| Posted in Montreal, Video

The opening ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympics are only two weeks away now. If you're half as fed up with pre-Olympic coverage as I am, maybe you'll appreciate some footage from Canada's first turn as host of an Olympics, in a little town called Montreal.

UPDATE: Rich suggests the Paul Cowan NFB doc I'll Go Again, which I also recommend if you have 40 minutes to spare.

Comments (2)
Tags: ,