'Tis the season for lists. Top 10 stories of the year, Top 10 photos of the year etc.
This list is TSF's Top 10 crystal ball/wish list for 2008:
10 - The Sun, Star, Globe and Post go into a huddle and come up with uniform prices for street sales - tax included. Store and box prices, ranging from 50 cents to $1, and the Sun's highly irritating tax bite at stores, can only be curbing the enthusiasm of readers.
9 - Quebecor and CUPE, set to return to the bargaining table in January, bring the eight-month Journal de Quebec lockout/strike, involving 250 Sun Media employees, to an end. Failing that, the free MediaMatin strike paper becomes a fully commercial tabloid.
8 - The Southern Ontario Newspaper Guild begins updating its sunfamily.ca web site at least once a month to keep members up to date on union activities, troop movements, membership drives and other news. Months without an update? Not cool.
7 - The Toronto Sun revives its annual weekday and Sunday Sun readership surveys, giving readers the opportunity to comment on their favourite reads and features throughout the tabloid. It worked for management and readers for decades.
6 - Major dailies in the Sun Media chain adopt the Winnipeg Sun's move to full online editions at a reasonable monthly subscription rate for the benefit of seniors, shut-ins and others who can't always get to a Sun box or outlet, or live beyond home delivery boundaries.
5 - New life is pumped into the lethargic, bare bones Sunday Sun television guide, or is merged with the ENT section. Sunday Sun readers who depend on the television guide are being short changed with the minimal television news and often inaccurate listings.
4 - Sun cartoonist Andy Donato and op-ed columnist Eric Margolis continue to say more about George W. pushing us to the brink with his invasion of Iraq and other follies in one cartoon and one column than most media ever do. Bravo Andy, bravo Eric.
3 - Negotiations for a second Toronto Sun editorial contract, scheduled for mid-January, go smoothly, with SONG and Sun Media quickly putting pen to paper sealing a second deal at the flagship daily. No staff cuts, no cutbacks, no animosity.
2 - The Sunday Sun, with the help of reader feedback, begins to bounce back, with the ultimate goal of picking up 60,000 readers for No. 1 Sunday paper bragging rights. It will require a mentality focused on unpredictable tab, not predictable broadsheet.
1 - Pierre Karl Peladeau, backed into a corner by Quebecor World's financial woes, sells Quebecor Media to an entity that believes in the future of print media and has the highest respect for newspaper people and readers.
Well, we can dream, can't we?
This list is TSF's Top 10 crystal ball/wish list for 2008:
10 - The Sun, Star, Globe and Post go into a huddle and come up with uniform prices for street sales - tax included. Store and box prices, ranging from 50 cents to $1, and the Sun's highly irritating tax bite at stores, can only be curbing the enthusiasm of readers.
9 - Quebecor and CUPE, set to return to the bargaining table in January, bring the eight-month Journal de Quebec lockout/strike, involving 250 Sun Media employees, to an end. Failing that, the free MediaMatin strike paper becomes a fully commercial tabloid.
8 - The Southern Ontario Newspaper Guild begins updating its sunfamily.ca web site at least once a month to keep members up to date on union activities, troop movements, membership drives and other news. Months without an update? Not cool.
7 - The Toronto Sun revives its annual weekday and Sunday Sun readership surveys, giving readers the opportunity to comment on their favourite reads and features throughout the tabloid. It worked for management and readers for decades.
6 - Major dailies in the Sun Media chain adopt the Winnipeg Sun's move to full online editions at a reasonable monthly subscription rate for the benefit of seniors, shut-ins and others who can't always get to a Sun box or outlet, or live beyond home delivery boundaries.
5 - New life is pumped into the lethargic, bare bones Sunday Sun television guide, or is merged with the ENT section. Sunday Sun readers who depend on the television guide are being short changed with the minimal television news and often inaccurate listings.
4 - Sun cartoonist Andy Donato and op-ed columnist Eric Margolis continue to say more about George W. pushing us to the brink with his invasion of Iraq and other follies in one cartoon and one column than most media ever do. Bravo Andy, bravo Eric.
3 - Negotiations for a second Toronto Sun editorial contract, scheduled for mid-January, go smoothly, with SONG and Sun Media quickly putting pen to paper sealing a second deal at the flagship daily. No staff cuts, no cutbacks, no animosity.
2 - The Sunday Sun, with the help of reader feedback, begins to bounce back, with the ultimate goal of picking up 60,000 readers for No. 1 Sunday paper bragging rights. It will require a mentality focused on unpredictable tab, not predictable broadsheet.
1 - Pierre Karl Peladeau, backed into a corner by Quebecor World's financial woes, sells Quebecor Media to an entity that believes in the future of print media and has the highest respect for newspaper people and readers.
Well, we can dream, can't we?
I love your blog when you stick to SUN MEDIA issues, BUT THE BUSH BASHING IS GETTING TO BE A BIT much, and while you may be a great fan of Margolis, I find his left wing rants tiresome and better suited to Toronto Daily Pravda's oped page. I suggest that you stick to the original premise of this blog, and leave the Bush-bashing and Monday morning quarterbacking of the Iraq war to Move On .org where Eric is no doubt a poster boy.
ReplyDeleteTSF, don't change a thing, because you're doing an outstanding job.
ReplyDeleteCriticize whoever the heck you want. After all, it's a free country the last time that I checked, notwithstanding the marching orders given to you by the above poster-child for censorship.
Yeah, that left-winger David Frum just wrote a book about how his former boss Dubya cocked up the war in Iraq. Those left-wingers just burn me up!
ReplyDeleteDidn't you get the memo? The right is letting go of The Decider with both hands. Sometimes wrong transcends politics.
Jim Slotek
(Hey, that Anonymous guy sure posts a lot)