News about news

• Two Reuters journalists imprisoned in Myanmar for supposedly breaking the country’s Official Secrets Act have been sentenced to seven years in prison. Governments around the world, including Canada, are calling for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo to be released.
• The Toronto Star’s Daniel Dale started a bit of a firestorm after he published an account of an off-the-record conversation between U.S. President Donald Trump and Bloomberg News journalists about NAFTA. Trump got mad (then pretended he wasn’t mad) and everyone just assumed the Bloomberg journalists fed Dale the quote, forcing him to clarify that the info didn’t come from the journalists.
• NBC News is defending its decision not to publish Ronan Farrow’s reporting into Harvey Weinstein, which prompted the journalist to go to the New Yorker instead. NBC points out that Farrow did not have any on-the-record sources who would be willing to go on camera, making it difficult to broadcast such a story, and that much of the on-the-record accounts that solidified the reporting came after he had left NBC.
• The Associated Press had to retract a news alert that film director Costa Gavras had died after learning the news came from a fake Greek Culture Ministry Twitter account.
• WSAZ TV meteorologist Chelsea Ambriz was charged with battery after allegedly attacking and seriously injuring a colleague, anchor Erica Bivens, after a romantic dispute over Bivens’s husband.
• The New Yorker has cancelled plans for a live on-stage interview with former White House staffer Steve Bannon at its New Yorker Festival after a social media backlash and threats from other guests to cancel.

At the CRTC

• The commission has reviewed its licence renewals for major English- and French-language TV broadcasters after being asked to do so by the federal government. Here’s what has changed:
  • In the English groups, the quota for Programs of National Interest (scripted comedies and dramas, long-form documentaries, award shows) is going up: 7.5% for Bell, 8.5% for Corus, as of 2018-19. Rogers remains at 5%. This change would mean millions more in funding for original Canadian series (though perhaps less for other types of Canadian programming).
  • In the French groups, the requirement that 50% of Canadian programming expenditures be for original French-language programs is going up to 75% for Bell, Corus, V and TVA.
  • For both groups, a new tax of 0.17% of gross revenues is being imposed to compensate for the fact that MuchMusic, M3 (since replaced by Gusto), CMT, MusiquePlus and Musimax (now just MAX) are no longer required to make financial contributions to music development. English groups will give that money to FACTOR and French groups to MUSICACTION. This new tax is temporary until the end of the licence term (i.e. 2022).
  • The commission found no action was necessary to support short-form programming since the Bell Fund decided to put specific money aside to support what was previously supported by BravoFACT.
• A bunch more licence renewals as the commission rushed to finish its homework before the Sept. 1 deadline:
  • RNC Media’s television stations in western Quebec, renewed to 2023. All four stations must broadcast two hours and 30 minutes a week of locally reflective news, plus individual conditions:
    • CFVS-DT Val d’Or (V): 2h30m a week of local programming, 44% of gross revenues on locally reflective news
    • CFEM-DT Rouyn-Noranda (TVA): 2h30m a week of local programming, 13% of gross revenues on locally reflective news
    • CFGS-DT Gatineau (V): 2h30m a week of local programming, 21% of gross revenues on locally reflective news
    • CHOT-DT Gatineau (TVA): 5h a week of local programming, 9% of gross revenues on locally reflective news
  • Télé Inter-Rives’s television stations in eastern Quebec, renewed to 2023, with the requirement to spend 15% of gross revenues on local news, and the following weekly quotas per station:
    • CHAU-DT Carleton-sur-Mer (TVA): 5 hours of local programming, 2h30m of locally reflective news programming
    • CKRT-DT Rivière-du-Loup (Radio-Canada): 2 hours and 45 seconds of local programming and locally reflective news programming
    • CIMT-DT Rivière-du-Loup (TVA): 5 hours of local programming, 2h30m of locally reflective news programming
    • CFTF-DT Rivière-du-Loup (V): 5 hours of local programming, 2h30m of locally reflective news programming
  • CKYR-FM Calgary (Red 106.7), renewed to 2025 but forced to pay $135,617 in extra Canadian content development contributions as punishment for failure to meet past CCD contribution minimums.
  • CKFG-FM Toronto (G98.7), renewed for three years over “unprecedented levels of non-compliance” that included insufficient Canadian musical content, insufficient world music content, late filing of annual returns, improper logs, late implementation of emergency alerting, and insufficient Canadian content development contributions. In addition to the short-term renewal, it is being forced to pay $39,000 in additional CCD contributions, and a new limit has been placed on the use of musical montages. Licence amendments to allow more musical flexibility were denied.
  • Wild TV, renewed to 2023 with a 25% Canadian programming spending quota (it had asked for 15%). Compliance issues related to Canadian programming and closed captioning were solved by the submission of complete logs.
  • New Tang Dynasty Television (NTD), renewed to 2022 with a 45% Canadian programming spending quota. It failed to comply with closed captioning requirements.
• Area code news for two of the four places in Canada still using seven-digit dialling:
  • In Newfoundland and Labrador (area code 709), the commission has delayed the implementation of new area code 879 and 10-digit dialling after the projected exhaustion date of 709 numbers was pushed back five years. The transition, originally set for this fall, will now start in 2022. The transition from 7- to 10-digit dialling begins Feb. 11, 2022, with mandatory 10-digit dialling starting May 6, 2022. The new area code begins, overlaid on the existing one, on May 20, 2022.
  • In New Brunswick, area code 506 will be overlaid with new area code 428 as of Nov. 21, 2020. The transition to 10-digit dialling begins Aug. 13, 2020, and mandatory dialling as of Nov. 7, 2020.
  • After those two have transitioned, Canada will have only two areas still with seven-digit dialling: Northwestern Ontario (807) and the territories (867). The group in charge of planning area codes projects they won’t need relief for those two until at least 2039.
• The Competition Bureau’s Interim Commissioner of Competition has filed an opinion on the CRTC’s review of telecom company sales practices. Interestingly, it says it has power to deal with misleading sales practices (promising one thing and failing to deliver on it), but it doesn’t have the power to deal with aggressive sales practices.

Ethical reviews

• The CBC has apologized to NDP MP Christine Moore for failing to give her enough time to respond to allegations of an inappropriate relationship. The mutually agreed-upon statement says the opinion piece CBC published “did not meet all of our editorial standards.”
• The CBC ombudsman looked into a Barbara Kay appearance on a panel discussion where she made comments that were criticized as transphobic. The review found no violation of policy, though the CBC did admit that her use of the term “affliction” was inappropriate. It specified that it was not in a position to review Twitter comments made by Kay after the discussion.
• CBC ombudsman: An eight-year-old article about group RESPs shouldn’t be de-listed from the CBC website just because its information is out of date.

TV

• Major changes are happening at CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Shaun Majumder is leaving the show, apparently over a creative dispute with its creators. But the Toronto Star points to a much larger “existential crisis” that has seen several writers let go, including Greg Thomey, who was a founding cast member of the show.
• CBC is launching a new arts documentary series called In the Making on Sept. 21. The series follows Canadian artists abroad, including Montrealers Dana Michel and Chilly Gonzales.
• Bell’s CraveTV is producing standup specials from Toronto’s JFL42 featuring Robby Hoffman, DJ Demers and Mark Forward.
• You Are Here: A Come From Away Story, a Canadian documentary about Gander, N.L., after dozens of planes were forced to land there amid the Sept. 11 attacks, will premiere on HBO Canada on Sept. 11.
• Mr. Robot, the USA Network drama that provided a realistic view of computer hacking, will end after its upcoming fourth season.
• Fall premiere date announcements:
  • CTV and CTV2
  • Global TV
  • Citytv, including the second season of Rizzuto docudrama Bad Blood, set to begin Oct. 11.
  • Teletoon, with four new original series
  • FX and FXX

Radio

• Mississauga radio station Sauga 960 launches on Tuesday.
• Corus’s Jump 106.9 in Ottawa has fired its morning hosts Jenna Mo and Jesse Reynolds to bring in a syndicated show called Brooke and Jubal. The links are to Facebook posts on the station’s page and the listeners don’t like either announcement.
• Thunder Bay’s Magic 99.9 CJUK-FM has rebranded as 99.9 The Bay, now playing music from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s.
• ADISQ has announced finalists for its radio awards. The only anglophone nominees are Chris Bury and Mathew Wood, nominated as best program director for CHOM.
• More drama at Toronto’s Jazz.FM91, as former host Garvia Bailey decides to sue.

Print

• The Village Voice, the 63-year-old New York alt weekly, is shutting down. The decision last year to end print production and go online-only came to its inevitable conclusion.
• La Revue (recently renamed Gatineau Express), one of many former Transcontinental community newspapers that was sold to local owners last year, is being shut down, with its last edition Sept. 5. Owner Lexis Media says its other papers Le Bulletin and La Petite-Nation will continue publishing.
• The New York Times managed to find one newspaper that’s doing well — The Villages Daily Sun, a newspaper for a Florida retirement community.
• The U.S. International Trade Commission has overturned duties on Canadian newsprint that hurt a lot of U.S. newspapers.

Online

• Facebook will charge sales taxes for ads it sells in Canada, even though it is not legally required to.
• The Curators of Sweden project, in which Swedish citizens take control over the @sweden Twitter account, is ending this month. It’s unclear why.
• Bell has completed its acquisition of Axia NetMedia, owner of Alberta’s SuperNet broadband network which was built as a private-public partnership starting in 2001.
• Rotten Tomatoes has added 200 more critics in an effort to diversify its pool.

Election stuff

We’re in the middle of a Quebec election campaign, so party leaders are making some promises that they may or may not be able to keep:

• Coalition Avenir Québec leader François Legault is promising $400 million to improve Internet access for Quebecers in remote areas. The plan would be to boost an existing federal program that subsidizes network improvements.
• Parti Québécois leader Jean-François Lisée wants to force Netflix to have a Quebec content quota, and re-establish a mandated minimum price for books.

News about people

• Brian Wilde, the former CTV sportscaster who spent a year with the website Recrutes.ca covering hockey and its future, is returning to Global Montreal as a contributor this season, and expanding his role to include postgame columns on Global’s website and analysis when news warrants.
• Kate Shingler, formerly assignment editor at Global Montreal, has been hired to the MUHC Foundation’s communications team.
• Mark Carcasole has been named weekend anchor for local newscasts in markets where such newscasts are produced out of Toronto (including Global Montreal). He starts Sept. 15. His predecessor, Angie Seth, left Global for CTV.
• La Presse has investigated the “toxic” work environment at Radio-Canada under its star Ottawa reporter Emmanuelle Latraverse. The psychological harassment alleged by many who worked with her led to her eventually leaving the public broadcaster. She now works at TVA. Latraverse has finally confirmed that there were issues with her behaviour (first reported by Frank magazine), and blamed it on her failure to deal with depression and burnout. She apologized in a statement sent to La Presse as well as on social media.
• David Pecker of National Enquirer fame has resigned from the board of directors of Postmedia.
• Stéphane Cardin, formerly a VP at the Canada Media Fund, has been hired as Netflix’s first employee in Canada, in charge of regulatory affairs and industry relations.
• Tracy Nagai is being upgraded to weekend morning co-anchor on Global Calgary.
• Jamieson Bridal is the new weekend announcer at Ottawa’s Rebel 101.7.
• Joe McFarland is the new host of Calgary Today on Global News Radio in Calgary (770 CHQR).
• Kyle Duggan is leaving iPolitics for The Wire Report.
• Marie-Lise Rousseau is back at Métro after 18 months at Le Devoir.
• Sadiya Ansari, formerly associate editor at Chatelaine, has been hired by Global News.
• Adam Wallis has been hired as a national journalist covering music for Global News, Global News Radio and other Corus radio stations.
• Lots of departures at Postmedia as the company reached the end of its fiscal year and offered a round of buyouts with the goal of reducing the salary budget by 10% (much of this list compiled via a Twitter thread from Les Perreaux, some were mentioned in previous digests last month, and not all of these are buyouts):
  • Senior VP of content Gerry Nott (Lucinda Chodan, editor-in-chief of the Montreal Gazette, becomes the new senior VP of content, maintaining her Gazette role)
  • National Post Montreal reporter Graeme Hamilton (he’s moved to The Canadian Press, heading its Montreal bureau)
  • Financial Post columnist Barry Critchley
  • Financial Post journalist Jonathan Ratner
  • Financial Post journalist Alicja Siekierska (moving to Yahoo Finance)
  • Montreal Gazette health reporter Charlie Fidelman
  • Montreal Gazette copy editor Patricia Crowe
  • Montreal Gazette copy editor François Lauzon
  • Ottawa Citizen hockey columnist Wayne Scanlan
  • Ottawa Citizen city hall reporter Matthew Pearson
  • Vancouver Province news editor Lorne Smith
  • Vancouver Province hockey writer Jason Botchford (now at The Athletic)
  • Vancouver Sun journalist Charlie Anderson
  • Vancouver Sun journalist Larry Pynn
  • Vancouver Sun editorial pages editor Harvey Enchin
  • Saskatoon StarPhoenix reporter Betty Ann Adam
  • Edmonton Journal features editor Donna Christensen
  • Edmonton Journal politics columnist Graham Thomson
  • Edmonton Journal business writer Gordon Kent
  • Calgary Herald reporter James Wood
  • Windsor Star editor-in-chief Ellen van Wageningen
  • Windsor Star metro editor Roseann Danese
  • Windsor Star fitness reporter Kelly Steele
  • London Free Press sports columnist Morris Dalla Costa
  • London Free Press business reporter Hank Daniszewski
  • London Free Press columnist Ian Gillespie
  • London Free Press reporter Jonathan Sher
  • Toronto Sun copy editor Pat Job
  • Toronto Sun travel editor Robin Robinson
  • Cornwall Standard Freeholder sports editor Kevin Gould
• Craig Pearson has been named managing editor at the Windsor Star, replacing the duties of Ellen van Wageningen.
• Unrelated to the Postmedia buyouts but happening simultaneously, Montreal Gazette interns Kelsey Litwin, Darya Marchenkova, Matthew Lapierre, Jacob Dubé and Katya Teague are now free agents.

Obituaries

• George MacLaren, former Sherbrooke Record publisher and founding publisher of the short-lived Montreal Daily News.

Jobs

• Breaking news editor/reporter, TheGrowthOp (Postmedia) in Toronto (deadline: Sept. 7)
• Journalist, L’Actualité (deadline: Sept. 17)
• Afternoon News Anchor/Reporter, The River/More FM in Niagara Falls/Fort Erie (deadline: Sept. 24)
• Economics and Money Editor, Vice News in Toronto
• Video journalist, CityNews Montreal
• News anchor, Zoomer Radio/Classical FM in Toronto