News about news

• A Ryerson University research project looked at local news coverage in eight communities. Unfortunately that’s far too small a sample size to come to any real conclusions.
• The federal heritage parliamentary committee continues hearing complaints from people about the CBC. The Globe and Mail was the latest one.
• The Quebec government is giving a new commission of inquiry into the protection of journalists’ sources until 2018 to file its report.
• There are plenty of stories about journalists and minorities being the targets of online verbal abuse. This one from a Washington Post fact-checker is interesting, if only because the subject started asking questions of her abusers and found many of them backed down quickly when they realized they were shouting at a real person.
• Blacklock’s Reporter, the paywalled news service covering the federal government, has lost a court case against the people they’re reporting on after they found out that one of the publication’s articles was shared among staff at the Finance Department who didn’t subscribe to the publication. The judge found the sharing over email clearly fell under the fair dealing protection.
• A bizarre situation in Alberta where a judge refrained in a court decision from naming the man he had convicted of Internet luring of an 11-year-old. He did so because he apparently wanted to protect the man from vigilantes who might seek alternative justice. But while the victim’s name is subject to a publication ban, the offender’s is not (none was requested), so CBC is naming him anyway.

At the CRTC

• Days before a hearing on TV licence renewals, a temporary fill-in CRTC commissioner has been named: civil servant Judith LaRocque. She has a six-month term, enough to serve as a francophone commissioner studying the renewals of TVA and V.
• CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais gave a keynote speech to the Canadian chapter of the International Institute of Communications today. The speech goes over the past four years of the commission’s work (what a coincidence, that happens to be the amount of time he’s been there) and is mainly self-congratulatory. He also criticizes Canada’s television creative community for overstating the effect of a reduction in Canadian content requirements, he criticizes the “news media” for “spilled ink and exhaled air”, he criticizes online media for not having the training to replace traditional media reporters, he criticizes Shomi for pulling the plug too early and being lazy, and he criticizes “naysayers” in general for making “false and misleading statements.”

TV

• An interesting featurette from Mohawk Girls on how the series incorporates the Mohawk language into its show.
• Corus has launched History Vault, a subscription video-on-demand service of History’s archival collection, for $5.50 a month.

Radio

• Last week the deadline passed for the launch of the TTP Media station at 600 AM in Montreal. The commission confirmed to me that an application for an extension to that deadline has been filed, but no decision has been reached yet. The last extension said it would be the final one, but the CRTC said the same two years ago about 940 and gave another extension anyway. They have until Nov. 21 to inform the commission that they are ready to launch the 940 station, which has been doing some on-air testing.
• There was an on-air occupation by staff of Radio Centre-Ville (CINQ-FM 102.3) on the weekend. Contributors to the community-run ethnic radio station are complaining about management decisions to rent out airtime to stem a financial crisis. They’ve called for a special general assembly so they can discuss and vote on what to do about the situation.
• West Island Gazette columnist Victor Schukov writes that the West Island needs its own radio station. He dismissed The Jewel 106.7 in Hudson (with comments that pissed off staff at that station), and noted that CFOX, the former West Island AM radio station, shut down because it wouldn’t work financially. Setting aside the lack of available FM frequencies, there doesn’t seem to be much of a case that West Islanders are not properly served by CJAD or other stations that broadcast from downtown.

No Gazette employee I worked with was ever finer than office manager June Thompson who leaves the newspaper today after 38 years. pic.twitter.com/q8bVcXuBcb

— Terry Mosher (@TerryMosher1) November 11, 2016

Print

• Friday was the last day for two managers at the Montreal Gazette whose jobs are being eliminated as part of the latest major staff cut at Postmedia: Photo editor Marcos Townsend and newsroom administrator June Thompson. The latter, who has been holding the newsroom together for decades, got a special drawing from the local cartoonist.
• There’s been a major reorganization of newsroom management jobs at the Toronto Star. This memo gives the details.
• The New York Observer has ended its print edition.

Online

• Radio-Canada has launched a new website for francophone aboriginals and started an internship program. Here’s a note from its new editor-in-chief.
• Urbania is the latest partner that will get some content tacked on to La Presse+ for free.
• The CBC issued a press release defending its legal threats against podcast app developers who use ads to get revenue from those apps. Because the apps can be used to download CBC podcasts, it’s considered a commercial use of those podcasts, and the CBC says they need permission. The broadcaster is interpreting someone downloading a podcast using a podcast app as the podcast developer making “use” of CBC content.
• AMC Networks has bought a minority stake in Funny or Die, which will likely mean the website working more closely with TV channel IFC.
• Google has decided to make fake news sites ineligible for its Google AdSense platform, and Facebook is working to cut down on people being fooled by false news, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg writing a note to users.

Movies

• The CBC has launched a new fund to assist underrepresented Candian filmmakers creating fictional works. “Eligible projects will be judged solely on creative merit.”

News about people

• Sean Fitz-Gerald has a new job at a Toronto-based sports journalism startup.
• Mike Bullard is in more legal trouble related to how he’s allegedly treating his ex-girlfriend.

Obituaries

• Gwen Ifill, PBS news anchor
• Janet Wright, actress (Corner Gas)
• Cella Irvine, digital media manager and former About.com leader

Jobs

• California bureau, Globe and Mail
• Communications officer, CBC Montreal
• Journalist (temporary), 98.5 FM (deadline: Dec. 9)
• Bourse AJIQ-Rogers (deadline: Feb. 13)

Upcoming events

• Nov. 18-20: FPJQ conference in Mont-Saint-Sauveur
• Nov. 22-24: CRTC hearing on French-language TV licence renewals in Laval
• Dec. 11: CBC Montreal Christmas Sing-In