Monthly Archives: May 2010

You feel shame, you know

May 8, 2010 – 5:11 am| Posted in Media, Navel-gazing

An error above the fold on Page 1

There are some things I'd been told keep copy editors up at night. Did I make sure all the page numbers matched up? Did I make sure all the stories that were supposed to get in the paper got in? Did I make sure to spell everything correctly? Did I make sure to add online and other external pointers where needed?

When that copy editor's job is doing Page A1, those fears are heightened.

I'd heard from fellow (young) editors about the anxiety they would feel after the end of their shifts, how they would go home and just assume they got something horribly wrong but didn't know what it was.

That never really happened to me. Not because I didn't think I'd ever get anything wrong (though I like to think of myself as pretty good at my job) but because there isn't much I can do about it.

Read More »

Comments (10)
Tags: ,

Côte-Sainte-Catherine metro station to close this summer

May 6, 2010 – 4:20 pm| Posted in Montreal, Public transit

The STM announced in its Info STM page this morning (PDF) that major work at the Côte-Sainte-Catherine metro station will require it be closed completely between May 17 and August 23. Such closures tend to happen, particularly in stations with only one access, when construction and repair work would make accessing the station impossible.

Such repairs are scheduled during the summer because there's fewer people using the metro and it's not as annoying to walk a few extra blocks in 20-degree weather as it is in minus-20-degree weather.

While the station is closed, a shuttle bus service will be setup, with stops at Plamondon, Côte-Sainte-Catherine and Snowdon stations.

Among other summer projects the STM is planning in the metro:

  • Work on two accesses to the Côte-Vertu metro station will require the closure of the southern entrance on Côte-Vertu, and later the entrance on Édouard-Laurin. Some buses stopping outside those entrances will be detoured. The main entrance on the north side of Côte-Vertu (next to the main bus terminus) will remain unaffected and the station will remain open.
  • Work at Assomption station will force people to use an alternate entrance, though again the station will remain open.
  • Work is scheduled to begin later in the spring at the Du Collège and Place Saint-Henri stations. The nature of that work has not been released yet.
Comments (3)
Tags: ,

CJFM is hiring (Seacrest out?)

May 6, 2010 – 4:00 pm| Posted in Montreal, Radio

A job posting has gone out for an evening host at CJFM 95.9. It's to replace "Cousin Vinny" Barrucco, who's moving from late nights to take over The Rush in the afternoon.

The position requires at least two years of on-air experience, the ability to prepare "relevant content for each on-air shift as scheduled and as per station target" and, you know, the ability to speak English.

What's noteworthy about this post is that it lists the on-air shift as 7pm to midnight. This would entirely replace not only Barrucco's old show but the syndicated On Air with Ryan Seacrest as well. Replacing syndicated content with a local DJ has at least one former Astral Media employee giving it a thumbs-up.

I wish I could get you more details about all of this (like whether this would also affect Seacrest's weekend show), but Program Director Mark Bergman isn't responding to my emails anymore (probably because I keep making fun of him).

Meanwhile, I just noticed that the station has picked up a (former) podcast to fill an hour on weekends. Man of the Hour features two Montrealers (including someone from Simple Plan), and is now airing Sundays from 9 to 10pm. Unfortunately, this means they've discontinued the actual podcast, so you can't download it. You'd think they'd at least have the podcast on the Virgin Radio website so it can generate some buzz and better connect the station with an audience that doesn't listen to radio any more.

Comments (5)
Tags:

Running over penguins is fun

May 5, 2010 – 3:44 am| Posted in Business, Canadiens, Media, Montreal

A fellow editor noticed this ad that appears in Tuesday's Gazette. It's an ad for Ford that seems pretty generic until you think about it for a second.

Ford ad in The Gazette, May 4, 2010, Page A12

The text says "Passion to go the distance". Penguins in the windshield, and in the rear-view mirror is the Capitol Building in Washington. At the bottom, the logo of the Canadiens.

Ford hasn't had the best of luck trying to be funny in advertising in Canada, but this one was pretty cute. Not the most subtle ad ever created, but still relatively clever.

And hey, full-page colour ads pay my salary, so I'm not going to complain.

There was something I read recently (and, of course, can't find now that I want to link to it) about car companies wanting to stop having Canadian firms develop their own marketing campaigns. Instead, they could just use U.S. ads in Canada. This is a pretty good reason not only to keep Canadian-specific ad campaigns, but locally-focused ones.

Comments (4)
Tags: , ,

Metro’s new look

May 4, 2010 – 1:56 am| Posted in Media, Montreal

Before: Last Friday's Metro, Pages 1 and 3

After: Monday's Metro

Gradients! Photo bylines! Giant numbers! Random unnecessary splashes of yellow! BOXY SERIFS!

Newspapers tend to make big deals of their redesigns, even if few people outside the newspaper care about them. Metro is no different. They teased this one for a whole week, and on Monday unveiled the new design with a giant centre-spread guide to it, as if people needed instructions all of a sudden:

Centre spread guide to the new design

The new look comes with a renewed focus on Metro's original reporting (something that was virtually non-existent when the paper launched in 2001). Considering the reporting staff could fit into a minivan, that means a lot of repeat faces.

The basic design elements that make Metro what it is aren't going to change though. It's still littered with by-the-numbers infoboxes, trying to distill important facts into 20-word factbites. But then, that's the whole point, right?

A day by any other name

When I first saw the tease at one of those orange stands last Monday, I was intrigued. Not so much because they were coming out with a new design, but that they said it would be in five days. My amazing addition skills put that on a Saturday, when the paper doesn't publish. Were they going to launch a Saturday edition with the new look?

Sadly, that wasn't to be. There's no money in weekend editions of commuter freesheets.

Instead, Metro seems to have simply decided that Saturday and Sunday no longer qualify as "jours", and that five days after a Monday, one day after Friday, is next Monday.

But maybe I'm just a stickler for these kinds of things.

Stands proudly announce the new-look Metro.

And I couldn't help noticing this minor detail on the sports page:

Oops.

Trente has some brief words from Metro's editor, saying the look is great and will help its journalists and make kittens even cuter and stuff.

Comments (6)
Tags: ,

Montreal Geography Trivia No. 76

May 3, 2010 – 12:00 pm| Posted in Montreal, Pop quiz

What does this childish scribble of a drawing represent?

UPDATE: Steve Hatton needed only seven minutes to get this one. These lines represent the redesign of de Maisonneuve Blvd. between St. Laurent and St. Urbain.

De Maisonneuve Blvd., looking west toward Clark St.

As of a few months ago, drivers (and cyclists) heading west no longer have a gradual curve that takes them around Place des Arts, but rather a stop sign and hard right onto Clark before they turn left back onto de Maisonneuve. This new layout gives more space for building construction nearby, but also reduces the speed of traffic.

In order to accommodate all the cars, the direction of Clark (a one-way street) is reversed between de Maisonneuve and ... uhh ... de Maisonneuve. This effectively reserves that stretch of road for drivers heading west on de Maisonneuve.

A little history

The path of de Maisonneuve Blvd. in this area is a bit strange, particularly because it curves upward to run right next to Ontario St. The path is entirely a result of the path of the green line of the metro between St. Laurent and Place des Arts stations. Before the metro's construction, de Maisonneuve Blvd. didn't exist. What we now know as that boulevard was a handful of unconnected roads, including de Montigny St. (everything east of St. Laurent), the last bit of which (the lower red portion in the image at top) has been removed with this redesign.

UPDATE (June 9): It's been pointed out below that a tiny stretch of de Montigny still exists, between Clark and St. Urbain, under this new design.

Comments (23)
Tags:

It’s gonna feel like 93 forever

May 2, 2010 – 7:28 pm| Posted in Canadiens, Video

Remember how I said the number of Habs songs was disappointing this season, particularly since the massive roster overhaul over the past year has made those old ones obsolete?

Well Annakin Slayd, who produced music videos in both languages over the past two years, has updated its anglo one for 2010, replacing references to Kovalev and Komisarek with Cammalleri.

UPDATE (July 25): The inevitable parody version went up a few weeks later:

Comments (7)
Tags: ,