News about news

• There’s a new movie coming out at the end of the year, called The Post, about the Washington Post and its battle to publish the Pentagon Papers in 1971. (The New York Times’s role in that is, I’m guessing, being downplayed.) It stars Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, so I guess just give it the Oscar right away.
• Speaking of movies, Disney briefly banned the Los Angeles Times from press screenings of its movies after it published a story that Disney thought was unfair. It reconsidered after “productive discussions with newly installed leadership” at the Times.
• Federal environment minister Catherine McKenna called out a journalist for Rebel Media at a press conference for that outlet’s habit of calling her “Climate Barbie”. She found the nickname insulting and sexist.

At the CRTC

• The commission has released the first part of its annual Communications Monitoring Report, dealing with broadcasting — TV, radio and television distribution. The numbers show just how concentrated Canadian media has become, with a handful of companies controlling the vast majority of revenues, viewing share and outlets.

TV

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU_TXxhDCQY

• The Canada Media Fund and Broadband TV have put episodes of classic Canadian TV series and movies on YouTube for free on a channel called Encore Plus. At launch, it includes episodes of Degrassi Junior High, Due South, The Littlest Hobo, Mr. Dressup, Da Vinci’s Inquest, Are You Afraid of the Dark and French series such as Cornemuse, Watatatow, Dans une galaxie près de chez vous and La petite vie. Some series are also dubbed in the other language. The full list of series, presented as YouTube playlists, is here. Using YouTube is a great idea, because not only does it save on infrastructure costs, but it also makes it easier for the viewer. No new app to download, and YouTube is already compatible with all sorts of devices and has all sorts of features. They promise “dozens” of new titles every week.
• Sylvain Archambault, a director of some hit Quebec TV series like Mensonges and Les pays d’en haut, has become the latest to learn that verbal abuse of women over years is not welcome these days. La Presse recounted stories of him yelling at actresses, insulting them, and shooting overly sexualized scenes that were not in the script and never broadcast. Those stories were anonymous, but Union des artistes president Sophie Prégent defended Archambault, saying she never experienced such behaviour from him. That comment resulted in several actors, including Marc-André Grondin and Magalie Lépine Blondeau, being outraged that she isn’t defending her colleagues.
• For those who missed the Leonard Cohen tribute concert this week, CBC Television will broadcast it on Jan. 3.
• Bell Media is creating a Jingle Ball North concert to be broadcast Dec. 17 on CTV and Dec. 20 on Much. The concert also includes the Backstreet Boys and some Canadian artists.
• The Russell Peters comedy The Indian Detective debuts on CTV on Nov. 23.
• Quebecor Media says it will start selling six-second ads for TV and other platforms.
• History has special programming for Remembrance Day, including an original documentary, I Am War, about Canadians who served in Afghanistan.
• Canadiens behind-the-scenes series 24CH is back for another season, and promises a new format that focuses more on off-ice activities of players, and includes more Quebec celebrities.
• AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner might mean having to sell assets to meet federal approval, and apparently one idea floated around was selling CNN.

Radio

• Lots of news stories were written about this Canadian Broadcast Standards Council decision that found that a French-language radio station airing a clip with the word “fuck” didn’t violate broadcasting guidelines because that word isn’t as offensive in French as in English.
• Chantal Desjardins is heading back to the radio, as co-host of the weekly Real Estate Show on CJAD.
• Paul Arcand demonstrated how much power he has when he blasted his radio station’s new website on the air and his employer apologized for it. Cogeco later said it had been the victim of a cyberattack, which based on the description I’m guessing was some sort of denial-of-service attack.
• Gilles Parent is officially out of a job, having been dumped by Cogeco’s FM93 in Quebec City. His former colleagues will remain on the afternoon show for the time being.

Print

• Star News Publishing (not to be confused with the Toronto Star), which purchased 13 Saskatchewan-based newspapers from Transcontinental last year, is shutting down the Moose Jaw Times-Herald, one of two dailies.
• The Montreal Gazette’s decision to run an Aislin cartoon of Valérie Plante as Wonder Woman created so much divided reaction that editor-in-chief Lucinda Chodan wrote about it the next day. It defends the cartoon against charges of sexism, but also notes Aislin’s apology for having failed to properly credit the artist whose Wonder Woman drawing he manipulated to add Plante’s face to.
• The Houston Astros winning the World Series was a big boon to the Houston Chronicle, which had to publish a bunch of extra copies the next day.
• Condé Nast is turning Teen Vogue into an online-only publication, ending the print run of the allegedly woke magazine.

Online

• You all know about Twitter expanding to 280 characters, right? OK, moving on…

News about people

https://twitter.com/journorosa/status/926627118171197440

• Turns out Lisa LaFlamme can sing. Last weekend was the Newzapalooza charity fundraiser, in which (Toronto) media people form bands and compete against each other. Despite the punalicious band name Highway to Bell, they didn’t win. Instead, the champion was Conrad Black Sabbath. But the real winners were the kids — the event raised $13,000.
• Steve Bonspiel, editor of Kahnawake’s The Eastern Door, has been named Concordia’s journalist-in-residence for the winter 2018 semester. My colleague Chris Curtis has some nice words for the man.
• Sylvie Courtemanche, head of regulatory and government affairs at Corus, has been named the new chair of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. She begins Jan. 2.
• Véronique Prince, long-time TVA reporter, has been poached by Radio-Canada, and will report from Quebec’s National Assembly starting next week.
• Stéphane Giroux of CTV has been acclaimed to a new mandate as president of the FPJQ. Several board positions were also acclaimed, but two positions will be up to a vote — an administrator representing regional media and one representing independent media.
• Nancy Macdonald is moving from Maclean’s to the Globe and Mail as a national reporter starting Nov. 20.

Jobs

• Summer intern, Montreal Gazette (deadline: Nov. 10)
• Copy editor, Global News Toronto (deadline: Nov. 13)
• Digital content creator, Institute for Research on Public Policy in Montreal (deadline: Nov. 24)
• Fellowship for aboriginal investigative journalism (deadline: Dec. 1)

Upcoming events

• Jonah Keri lecture at Concordia, Nov. 16
• FPJQ conference, Nov. 17-19 in Sherbrooke