Media News Digest: RIP 2017, La Presse’s paper edition, and Ralph Noseworthy

Here’s what you missed over the holidays.

News about news

At the CRTC

At the CBC

TV

Radio

https://www.facebook.com/groups/iloveamradio/permalink/10155821466340993/

Print

  • La Presse is now officially no longer a newspaper. Its last print edition was published Dec. 30. With the closure, La Presse no longer needs a print layout team, subscriptions, printing or distribution, and Transcontinental will close the Métropolitain printing plant where La Presse was printed.
  • Le Devoir has restructured itself, raising $2.2 million in new capital and is now governed by a board of directors composed half of investors (including a seat for the paper’s union). The company retains 51% control of Le Devoir. The move, which also includes a half-million-dollar interest-free loan from the Quebec government, will support its digital evolution. By 2020 it expects almost all its income to come from subscriptions.
  • La Presse has a story about how young people are reimagining print media.

Online

Other

News about people

Obituaries

Good reads

13 thoughts on “Media News Digest: RIP 2017, La Presse’s paper edition, and Ralph Noseworthy

  1. dilbert

    The Z103 story is quite interesting, for a number of reasons. One of those, of course, is perhaps what such a decision may imply for the Jewel in “Montreal”.

    103.5FM is not really a contested frequency in the Toronto area. There is another station in New York State, much further away from Toronto, and another Ontario station in Bancroft, Both of those are much lower power, so there is no real risk of direct interference.

    The station is licensed to serve Orangeville, yet their studios are in Toronto (right downtown, in fact). This can be somewhat explained away by Evanov having another station in Toronto, but it’s still pretty shaky.

    However, it touches a bigger issue, which is regardless of where the transmitter is, it’s where the audience is. The CRTC is playing King Canute on this one, trying to hold back reality. Forget Toronto “core”, the vast majority of the population in it’s natural listen core are Toronto’s burbs and bedroom communities. These people won’t give a crap about Orangeville local news.

    If they wanted an Orangeville local station, they should have licensed it like Bancroft – 250W, cover your local area, and have a nice day – and let the 103.5FM frequency get reused closer to Toronto, maybe in Brampton.

    The Jewel is trying to do the same thing, in reality. By relocating their studios to the extreme east of their broadcast pattern, they are certainly implying they are much more of a “west island montreal” station that a Hudson St Lazare station. Seeing this the same owners as Z103, it appears to be a technique they are using to try to edge into markets they are otherwise shut out of on the FM dial.

    I would not be surprised to see the CRTC bring to bear regulations about the location of studios for stations. The Jewel’s studios are located on the fringe of it’s secondary contour, similar to that of Z103. The clear intention seems to be to not be part of the community they are licensed to serve.

    Of course, the CRTC would just wise up and realize that it’s where the listeners are that defines the station, and not some ghost target market.

    Reply
    1. Fagstein Post author

      Of course, the CRTC would just wise up and realize that it’s where the listeners are that defines the station, and not some ghost target market.

      Using such a definition would mean denying any request for a technical change, since people who can’t hear the station are by definition not listeners.

      CIDC-FM was specifically licensed to serve Orangeville, and the CRTC is holding its owners to that. It has also stepped in for other stations in suburban markets, such as CHXX-FM Donnacona, to ensure they serve the community they’re licensed for.

      Reply
      1. dilbert

        “Using such a definition would mean denying any request for a technical change, since people who can’t hear the station are by definition not listeners.”

        Not the point. The point is once the transmitter is in and approved, the market for that station is defined by who listens to it. The CRTC and Industry Canada actually moved the station which should have been in Guelph to Orangeville area for various reasons. They granted it 50,000 watts, and the transmitter is about 70kms from downtown Toronto core. Then a few years later, they let them move to about 50kms from Toronto with about 31,000 watts – more than enough to get the signal into town, and just as importantly to serve all the bedroom communities and commuters in the Toronto market. The CRTC even playfully wagged their finger at then and made them pinky promise they wouldn’t neglect their “licensed” market of Orangeville.

        Truth is, the CRTC likely should have made the station much more directional, and made it impossible for the signal to properly serve the Toronto market. Instead, they sort of shrugged and let the station move it’s transmitter. That was 14 years ago. The station has had a few renewals over the years without significant issues about their Toronto ordered nature being raised.

        It isn’t until recently when they tried to get a power increase (to a maximum ERP of 100,000 watts!) to better serve their listeners. Suddenly someone woke up.

        The CRTC created the problem, tolerated and let it fester for well over a decade, and finally decide to do something about it now?

        It’s sort of late to be doing it. The station serves it’s listeners, and there happens to be more of them nearer the Toronto core. Is it right for the CRTC to deny those listeners the station they enjoy, to meet a regulatory standard that the CRTC themselves has ignore for so long?

        Doesn’t seem right.

        Reply
  2. Kiki

    Chantal is a breath of fresh air on Breakfast Television & Virgin. I would love to see & hear more of her on both or even full time one on or the other. She’s genuine , upbeat and likeable.

    Reply
    1. DS

      Chantal for the win. The most underused and under appreciated Anglo talent in Montreal. Montreal morning show executives would be foolish to not get here in there.

      Reply
  3. Anonymous

    What’s going to happen when Spike morphs into Paramount Television on Jan. 18th, especially for Videotron subscribers, and will turn into a premium service as a result?

    Reply
    1. Fagstein Post author

      What’s going to happen when Spike morphs into Paramount Television on Jan. 18th

      Exactly that. The CRTC has already approved the name change on the list of channels approved for distribution in Canada. If television providers still have valid deals to distribute it, they can still do so.

      Reply
  4. Marc

    But the investigation doesn’t look into TVA’s reporting, why the story was broadcast before seeking comment from the mosque, and why the journalist asserted the existence of a written demand “black on white” that she never saw herself.

    That was a career-ending move by the “journalist” who reported this story. I’ve no idea why she’s still employed. I guess that says more about TVA than anything else.

    Reply
  5. Marc

    <blockquote?So many of those I-can’t-believe-Trump-did-that stories are actually wrong, based on a quote taken out of context or a deliberate exaggeration of the facts.

    That nicely sums up the modus operandi of the left/MSM. They have no valid points to put forth (and they know it) so they just make it all up. Conrad Black very eloquently pointed that out in a couple pieces he penned this past fall in which he likens the MSM/left as the parliamentary equivalent of the official opposition.

    Reply
    1. Fagstein Post author

      That nicely sums up the modus operandi of the left/MSM. They have no valid points to put forth (and they know it) so they just make it all up.

      It would be ridiculous to suggest that the Trump administration is without fault. There are plenty of real scandals, but because just about anything can happen, people are willing to believe just about anything.

      Reply
  6. Louie DePalma

    Re: Washington Examiner. No s***. The media’s behaviour is unprofessional, unethical, shrill and often without fact issuing retractions after investigative journalists like Glenn Greenwald call them out.

    Reply
    1. Fagstein Post author

      The media’s behaviour

      The media isn’t a monolith. It encompasses everything from Fox News Channel to Ellen to 12-year-olds on YouTube. Don’t think in those terms, and be more specific in your criticisms.

      Reply
      1. Louie DePalma

        Oh I’m aware of that. As a short-wave listener and Sirius subscriber and part of political discussion groups in the USA, It’s mightily diverse and deep.

        Reply

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