My sympathies to him and to Mitch Melnick, Herb Zurkowsky and Elliott Price whose humiliation serves to remind people how betting on sports (when a spread is factored in) is more about luck than anything else.

See also:

• July 8, 2008 — Gazette’s thinner TV Times
• June 23, 2008 — Sports by Fagstein
• June 19, 2008 — Far from black and white

The bad news is that the paper is losing a lot of seasoned staff, including some well-known columnists.

Jack Todd is the most visible of those names. He writes his goodbye column in the New Year’s Eve edition of his rapid-fire-judgment and grammatically-challenged Monday Morning Quarterback column. He’ll be leaving on Jan. 11 to “concentrate on writing fiction.” Though he won’t be a full-time staffer anymore, he’s expected to stick around doing freelance, and will start a “very different and more serious Monday sports column.”

Other columnists departing the paper within the next few weeks include:

• Julian Armstrong, food editor
• Lisa Fitterman, lifestyles columnist (a coincidental departure — she’s been freelance since taking an earlier buyout years ago) also put out a goodbye column this week
• Mary Lamey, business writer and Homefront columnist
• Donna Nebenzahl, lifestyles writer and Working columnist
• Matt Radz, theatre critic

The paper is also losing copy editors, writers, support staff and section managers. It’s unclear how many of them will continue writing freelance and how many will cut ties completely. But at least they all left of their own accord.

See also:

• June 8, 2008 — Gazette call centre gets pink slip
• March 4, 2008 — Jack’s back
• February 2, 2008 — More changes at The Gazette

I realize magazines have long lead times between writing and publishing, but this is kind of silly.

Anyway, the report is still worth reading, if only for its surprisingly honest self-assessment.

See also:

• July 8, 2008 — Gazette’s thinner TV Times
• June 23, 2008 — Sports by Fagstein
• June 22, 2008 — TWIM: Dion’s carbon tax idea

Here’s one I’ve created especially for Fagstein visitors. You’re welcome.

Unfortunately, the design of the site (and the e-cards) is painfully annoying. In the same way that Bleublancrouge (and every other advertising company on the planet) has a Flash-only site that’s hard to navigate, this e-card site is also Flash-only. It features a 30-second piano rendition of Deck the Halls on infinite repeat, and the “sound off” button doesn’t appear until after you’ve already hit the mute button on your computer. It also appears to not have been sufficiently tested in Firefox on the Mac, because I have to scroll up and down to see anything. When you get to the card itself, it takes a full minute and a half to animate the 10-word message.

In other words, Patrick Tanguay, don’t click on that link.

That said, 10 cents to help a down-and-out Montreal family is worth a little annoyance. And if you don’t think so, feel free to donate to the fund itself via this page whose URL and design make it look a lot like a phishing page ready for your credit card information. (It’s not, of course, and you can donate by phone or in person.)

See also:

• July 8, 2008 — Gazette’s thinner TV Times
• June 23, 2008 — Sports by Fagstein
• June 19, 2008 — Far from black and white

Then he starts getting mean.

See also:

• July 4, 2008 — YASTGBs: JFL, film festivals
• June 16, 2008 — YASTGB: The most boring military mission ever
• May 29, 2008 — Gazette restarts Grand Prix blog

Though the article is unsurprisingly negative in tone, it provides quite a bit of insight into the situation at the paper, as well as what the future holds for print media in general.

A couple of things though:

1. While The Gazette’s lobby is very pretty and there are some shiny yellow surfaces, I doubt it’s actually made of solid gold as the article implies.
2. Sorry Mike Gasher, but “linkalism” is not a word.

See also:

• June 8, 2008 — Gazette call centre gets pink slip
• February 2, 2008 — More changes at The Gazette
• January 2, 2008 — Jack Todd among columnists leaving The Gazette

See also:

• July 4, 2008 — YASTGBs: JFL, film festivals
• June 16, 2008 — YASTGB: The most boring military mission ever
• May 29, 2008 — Gazette restarts Grand Prix blog

The design still needs some ironing out, so expect the look to change slightly (hopefully including getting rid of that awful sea-green). I also noted that “associate blogger” Kevin Mio has been promoted to having his picture on the homepage again.

The backend of the site, administered by techies John MacFarlane and Dru Oja Jay, is separate from the CanWest online canada.com nightmare, and that’s a good part of why it’s so successful.

See also:

• May 15, 2008 — I’m very disappointed in all of you
• April 10, 2008 — Oh Guy!
• February 28, 2008 — Welcome to the blogosphere

A few things:

1. There was no “media circus” around the St. Laurent Arena. There was an alarmist article in The Gazette (”Poison in air at rinks” in giant letters on A1) as well as a matching editorial, but neither focused exclusively on the St. Laurent Arena. The article grouped it with two others as those which showed dangerously high levels of the gases, but even then it fingered Sportplexe 4 Glaces Pierrefonds (an arena used by the Canadiens) as the worst offender. A short article by 940 News didn’t mention St. Laurent at all. And a Suburban article about the situation even defended the arenas, giving their side of the story, and a La Presse piece downplayed the risks, saying the quality of air was improving.
2. The implication is that the news coverage was unjustified or even incorrect (and they needed to “uncover the real story”). The list of arenas was taken right out of a government report (PDF), and while it may have been sensationalized (the report actually said the quality of air was improving at the rinks), the fact remains that seven arenas had levels of CO and NO₂ which were above what is considered safe. That’s clearly a matter of public interest that deserves news coverage.
3. “A Montreal English-language newspaper”? Can we please stop with this B.S. coyness about naming other media? How many people read the Saint-Laurent News and have never heard of The Gazette?
4. The article points out that now St. Laurent has a new electric ice resurfacer, toxic gas detectors and better ventilation and their air quality has improved. It’s debatable whether the Gazette article caused these things to happen faster than they would have, but either way the coverage did more good than harm, no?

Pointing out the flaws of other media is fair game (in fact, for many, it’s a sport), but before you do that you should make sure you’re actually pointing out flaws.  Self-important snark, especially when you’re in the wrong, makes you look like a douche. (Trust me, I should know.)

See also:

• July 8, 2008 — Gazette’s thinner TV Times
• June 23, 2008 — Sports by Fagstein
• June 19, 2008 — Far from black and white

The news hit the fan today thanks to a CP story about a Gazette memo which indicates the company wants to reduce the size of its editorial staff to save money.

Publisher Alan Allnutt said in a memo to employees that management is doing all it can to avoid layoffs (which it’s required to do under its union agreement), and is offering another round of buyouts for those who want to leave voluntarily. (The formula offers a lump sum payment based on how long an employee has worked for the paper: 4.5 weeks per year of service, which works out to a year’s pay if you’ve been there 11.5 years).

Still, most people are looking at this story with disappointment, especially considering recent job cuts at TQS and Global, as well as a general feeling of a decline in quality at mainstream publications due to budget cuts.

It also puts into perspective moves like this:

First appearing last week, this new page on the paper’s website encourages visitors to “share your news” by submitting text, audio, photos or video in the hope that such an action will either get a story written about a subject or that your submission will be posted online.

Just about every major media outlet is doing this (see CNN’s iReport for another example, or the Ottawa Citizen version), because it preys on people’s desire to get their 15 minutes of fame, it sounds all Web 2.0-ish and pleases their marketing departments who can say they “get it”, and of course it helps the bottom line because these amateur reporters aren’t paid a cent for their work.

I’ll be looking into some of these issues of “user-generated content” for upcoming articles in this same newspaper (can you feel the irony?), so stay tuned.

In the meantime, what do you think of all this? Should newsrooms be squeezed even further? Are journalists not working hard enough? Are TV, radio and newspaper news departments destined for extinction? Is free, user-generated news the future? Feel free to comment below.

UPDATE (Nov. 4): Deborah Jones of J-Source has some thoughts on the CanWest situation in general.

See also:

• June 8, 2008 — Gazette call centre gets pink slip
• February 2, 2008 — More changes at The Gazette
• January 2, 2008 — Jack Todd among columnists leaving The Gazette

We’ll set aside the inherent valuelessness of such fluff journotainment. What really sucks about Made For TV is the writing. Today, for example, they have this unknown freelance hack talk about watching Family Guy and the Discovery channel while surfing the net on his laptop. I’m sure this guy thinks he’s very funny. A look at his TV-watching diary shows he has plenty of free time being a couch-potato loser to cultivate that wit, watching Star Trek reruns until 3 a.m.

I for one have never heard of this guy before, though he seems to think he’s hot stuff talking about himself on his blog. What do I care what he’s watching on TV? Should I be pitying him? It’s just so sad.

But man is he really hot.

…

But seriously folks (try the veal, I’ll be here all … forever), this was an interesting experience. It wasn’t a lot of work or anything, since I didn’t have to interview anyone or even leave the apartment. But I did have to measure how long it is between the kitchen stove and my TV set (15 metres).

Big photo

As we speak my mother and grandmother are evaluating whether the expression I have in my photo makes me look like a dufus (which would certainly not be a difficult feat for me). There’s one in the paper (Page A4) and another online of me holding a TV on my lap (photographer John Kenney’s idea, of course, though I do sometimes hug my 13-inch set).

Some geniuses out there will observe that neither photo features my laptop, which is on my desk out of frame. I only realized afterward it would have been a better idea to hold it as I normally do on my couch. But then again, normally my socks are all over the unvacuumed carpet, my face is unwashed, I don’t wear the nice shoes and I’m lying down awkwardly on the futon in my shorts with a blanket around me. And that doesn’t make for a very grandmother-friendly my-grandson-is-a-professional photo.

It’s the second time my photo has appeared in the paper (the first was a high school graduation photo my parents put in a congrats-you-graduated-college ad). So I fully expect my former high school classmates to evaluate how I’ve turned out. (It’s also the first time my name has appeared on Page A1.)

Do you know what “flick” means?

One of the few questions I was asked about my story (I expected more since there wasn’t much original direction on what the story should read like) was over my use of the word “flick” to indicate changing channels constantly. It seems my editor was more accustomed to the word “click” and my vernacular caused her to scratch her head a bit while reading. Maybe it’s a family thing. I got the word from my mother. A quick search of Wiktionary doesn’t give “changing channels” as a definition of “flick“. So I acquiesced and “flick” became “click”.

Don’t forget about Tom

I should add a shout-out to fellow freelancer Tom Peacock, who’s been the unsung hero of this series writing some smaller articles to go alongside the ego-stroking main stories. He’s been talking to regular people about using PVRs, watching TVs in sports bars, watching TV shows (semi-legally) on iPods and how retailers are selling nothing but HD TVs now. I did a similar thing (but with video) during the similar Shop Cook Eat Drink series on food habits back in February.

“Local blogger”

In his blog post shamelessly promoting the series, the very funny Basem Boshra refers to me as a “blogger”. A few of the announcements of the series also used the word. It’s not bad, but I just find it funny because I’ve never sold myself to the Gazette that way. Instead, they all just know I have a blog (and many of them read it regularly — hi guys!) and that blogging has emerged as a part of my identity. Since February it has developed dozens of regular feed subscribers and hundreds of daily visitors (not all of which are search engine indexing bots).

It’s just kind of funny the way that happened.

I think I’ll go walk downtown now and see if anyone recognizes me ;)

See also:

• May 23, 2008 — Français go home, says Toronto
• May 17, 2008 — The reasonable accommodation debate begins again
• March 26, 2008 — Anglo ads on franco websites?

The fact that someone took the time to create a parody version of this Gazette TV ad speaks to the campaign’s Head On-like success at getting into people’s heads.

(via iPub)

See also:

• July 8, 2008 — Gazette’s thinner TV Times
• June 23, 2008 — Sports by Fagstein
• June 19, 2008 — Far from black and white

The Festival du nouveau cinéma blog (2007) is getting contributions from Gazette researcher Liz Ferguson, film critic John Griffin, freelancer Al Kratina, columnists Brendan Kelly and Bill Brownstein, and editor Basem Boshra.

See also:

• July 4, 2008 — YASTGBs: JFL, film festivals
• June 16, 2008 — YASTGB: The most boring military mission ever
• May 29, 2008 — Gazette restarts Grand Prix blog

The latest is The Constant Shopper with fashion editor Eva Friede. (The fashion section, for the unfamiliar, is those couple of ad-filled pages on Tuesdays that feature photos of must-have garments and accessories on white backgrounds.)

The blog’s inaugural post (actually more like three posts) chronicles, among other things, her search for the perfect watch. She rejects a $5,300 diamond-studded timepiece because it’s “too big”.

This is where Eva and I differ. My watch was bought for $10 at a street sale, complete with fabric/velcro strap. And it has a stopwatch. And I couldn’t be happier (well, except for the fact that I have to press a button to check the date).

(Don’t get the wrong impression, she also shops at Winners. But don’t expect MTL Street here).

See also:

• March 21, 2008 — Gazette editor-in-chief starting blog
• September 24, 2007 — Another Gazette blog: Tee to Green
• September 14, 2007 — Take 5, take forever

The article is long and deals mostly with efforts to get areas of land rezoned from agricultural to residential (not too difficult when your party is in power — but if you can get through this part without lapsing into a coma, give yourself a cookie). These changes were made before Marois and her husband bought the land, but were supposedly done on their behalf. The really incriminating stuff — bribes in exchange for lies to get through loopholes — are based primarily on the statements of a retired construction worker who says he took $1,600 $500 in cash (see update below) after signing an affidavit about his use of an old cottage.

The other interesting part is the allegation that part of the estate (but no fixed structures besides a gate) are built on government-owned land (specifically, land reserved for the construction of the 440 highway extension, which would certainly have a negative impact on property values should it ever come). I’ve used the Google Maps aerial view of the property to draw a picture here based on details from the article:

As you can see, the “built on government land” part is basically just a driveway, a couple of ponds and a gated entrance. And while I don’t mean to lessen the political implications of taking government-owned land for personal use (and because it doesn’t belong to you, not paying any taxes on it), I’ve seen many examples of homeowners using adjacent undeveloped land to walk their dogs, plant gardens or otherwise informally expand their backyards. (Though none would be so bold as to build a gated entrance to it.)

As for The Gazette, they’re not exactly sweating bullets. Marsden’s story seems very well researched, and the paper is standing by its reporter. And since Marois’s lawyer won’t comment on what he says they got wrong (seriously folks, why announce to the media that you’re taking legal action and then immediately refuse to comment on it?), I’m guessing this is more to save face than it is to right any real factual errors.

UPDATE (Sept. 25): The Gazette repeats its story from yesterday saying Marois’s husband Claude Blanchet sent a lawyer’s letter and is threatening to sue. (They’re milking this story for all it’s worth — as well they should.) The article creates one small hole in the original story: The neighbour now says it was actually $500 instead of $1,600 and that Marsden misunderstood him.

Meanwhile, Cent Papiers wonders why TVA is giving The Gazette lessons in journalism as shown in this LCN video (in which Marsden speaks funny-sounding French and is grilled over whether or not this is a “real story”). The funny thing is that this wasn’t such a huge story until Blanchet made it one. His threats to sue is what got every media outlet in town focused on the story.

Oh, and Pauline won her by-election yesterday. Congrats.

UPDATE (Sept. 27): Marsden updates his story with news that Marcel Turcotte, the neighbour whose affidavit is at the centre of this controversy, has issued another affidavit reaffirming his previous one, and contradicting what he told Marsden. It also mentions there was a 5-year lease from the government (1994-1999) for use of the public land. (The paper made it clear in the original article it couldn’t determine if such a lease exists.) Managing Editor Raymond Brassard is still standing by his reporter.

Meanwhile, Marois holds a press conference at her Ile Bizard home and vows to follow through with her threat to sue the paper. She takes issue with the suggestions of impropriety, though not with any of the facts of the piece, except for the previously-corrected figure of $500 instead of $1,600 (which she insists was a gift in exchange for the work he went through on their behalf, and not a bribe or pre-negotiated compensation for signing the affidavit). She plans to donate any money she gets to help promote sovereignty (because The Gazette is deliberately targetting sovereignist leaders, she says).

UPDATE (Sept. 28): The 5-year lease was cancelled in 1996, according to Marois, because of snowmobilers using the land. She also says they got permission to install the gate and gate posts at the street entrance.

Marois’s lawsuit has been filed and asks for $2 million.

And this funny letter in the Gazette today, defending Marois against the paper’s “cheap shot”: “If the English are smearing her, she must be very good.” The writer vows to vote for Marois next time around, which I’m sure will come as sad news to anglo rights groups who were counting on his support.

See also:

• July 8, 2008 — Gazette’s thinner TV Times
• June 23, 2008 — Sports by Fagstein
• June 19, 2008 — Far from black and white

See also:

• March 21, 2008 — Gazette editor-in-chief starting blog
• September 24, 2007 — YAGB: Fashion shopping blog
• September 14, 2007 — Take 5, take forever

Recognizing that he was obviously getting better service because he was a newspaper columnist, and that prevented him from pretending he was like the rest of us, he promised not to take advantage of it next time he had a problem:

I still have the phone number of the guy in Ottawa who QBed the rescue effort. But as a gesture of solidarity with all the other schmos, I’ll report any future problems to Sympatico tech support - with one small adjustment.

“Next time you call, press 1 right away to choose French,” a neighbour advised. “That way you get connected to a techie in Canada.”

Well, less than two months later, it seems he’s gone back on his word, using the number to short-cut his way to a solution after the common-folk customer service people scammed him into paying Apple to diagnose a non-existent software problem.

I gave up. When I wrote a column, in July, about the nightmare of trying to set up the wireless system that Sympatico sold me, I got a call from the office of the vice-president of customer relations.

They arranged for a house call.

After some initial difficulties owing to unfamiliarity with Apple, the technician got me up and running.

I kept the phone number of the Sympatico’s VP’s office. When I called about my latest nightmare, they promised I’d hear from a senior technician that evening.

To Boone’s credit, he didn’t reach for the Special Treatment Number right off the bat, and the resulting grossly incompetent service gives him plenty of fodder for another column. But it’s hard to think of a columnist being one of us when that magic VIP lifeline is available to him to use at his convenience.

UPDATE (Sept. 24): Letter-writer Ruth Taylor, who had a similar problem, blasts Boone for taking advantage of his journalist status. She asked for a “Mac specialist” as Boone’s column suggested, but got nowhere. Unlike his gold-plated solution, she had to pay her own techie to diagnose her problem.

See also:

• September 10, 2007 — Crackerjacks at the Gazette
• July 8, 2008 — Gazette’s thinner TV Times
• June 23, 2008 — Sports by Fagstein

Of course, it’s not enough to be watching the Emmys, you have to read someone liveblogging it too. Something to keep you entertained during Ray Romano’s monologue. (It’s clear why some of the awards were previously presented, because they needed more time for long, unfunny monologues and skits.)

There’s a few options for Emmy liveblogging, but I’ll point to two with opposite mentalities:

FOX has five people you’ve never heard of sitting in the audience with blackberries in their hands, contributing to a blog on its website. The blackberries apparently prevent them from using punctuation, capital letters, or from spelling anyone’s name right. Here’s a sampling of some of the comments:

• “ray remono is a comedic genious he had the audience in tears”
• “I’m quick like a squirrell.”
• “whod of thought eva l could get any hotter”
• “hahaha yay justin!”
• “queeny is in the house”

Most of the other posts have about the same level of insight and grammar.

On the other side of the spectrum, The Gazette’s Basem Boshra is sitting in front of a TV liveblogging the Emmys for the Inside the Box blog. A sampling:

• 8:47: Biggest upset of the night so far as Late Night with Conan O’Brien snags the writing in a variety, comedy or music series trophy over heavyweights such as the Daily Show, Colbert Report and Late Show with David Letterman. (Although the winner for best goofy video to accompany the list of nominees - always one of the high points of any Emmy broadcast - goes to the team from Bill Maher, for their priceless send-up of the Sen. Larry Craig mess,)
• 8:59 p.m.: A grizzled-as-ever Robert Duvall spends a little too long extolling the virtues of the western after winning the award for best actor in a minseries or movie for Broken Trail, presented to him by Heroes’ Ali Larter and 24’s Kiefer Sutherland, the latter who was in full-on Sutherland-gravitas mode.

It’s not like the latter tells me much I couldn’t tell from simply watching the show. But at least it doesn’t treat me like an idiot.

UPDATE: From Sunday’s Gazette:

Sacrilege! How could they get the name of his show wrong?

See also:

• November 8, 2007 — Angryphones and frangryphones
• September 16, 2007 — Emmy “Interactive TV” award just a gimmick
• July 4, 2008 — YASTGBs: JFL, film festivals

The latest is Inside the Box, a TV blog featuring former TV critic Basem Boshra along with TV Explorer columnist Denise Duguay, Gazette online manager Asmaa Malik and blogging favourite Mike Boone.

It’s nice to see the paper get back to original TV coverage, and hopefully this blog will concentrate on local television instead of what’s coming out of Hollywood and start talking about local TV again. It’s something that’s been seriously missing since the TV column was outsourced to CanWest’s Alex Strachan.

See also:

• July 4, 2008 — YASTGBs: JFL, film festivals
• June 16, 2008 — YASTGB: The most boring military mission ever
• May 29, 2008 — Gazette restarts Grand Prix blog

It makes sense. Take 5 never really had a purpose. It was just a section where they threw together DVD reviews, electronics, gaming, the puzzles page and comics. It wasn’t really clear what tied them together.

So after realizing that few people read the section (they had a survey about it earlier this year) and that even fewer people care, they’re gutting it and redistributing its contents:

DVD reviews join the Friday Preview section as a single page, though it keeps the funky Take 5-style layout, which makes it look out of place.

Mark Saltzman’s electronics advertorials column moves to Thursdays in Arts & Life, where it will apparently be once every two weeks, rotated with other articles like those of photography columnist Martin Coles.

Tyler Todd’s In the Game column is being replaced by a blog of the same name. This makes sense considering the way Todd has been writing his columns. And considering they were always published in a tiny font, maybe this means people will be able to read it. (It also means Todd can do fun stuff like include pictures with his rants.)

Video game reviews, as far as I can tell, will no longer appear in The Gazette. That’s kind of a step backwards, but it’s another step in the continuing alienation between newspapers and younger generations, which will lead to newspapers’ downfall once the baby boombers die off.

The puzzles and comic pages will move back to Weekend Life, where they were before Take 5 was launched.

What do you think?

See also:

• March 21, 2008 — Gazette editor-in-chief starting blog
• September 24, 2007 — YAGB: Fashion shopping blog
• September 24, 2007 — Another Gazette blog: Tee to Green