Friday 2 October 2009

You Said It 4

Wayne Janes, a Toronto Sun vet, comments on John Downing's views on the early days of the tabloid:

"I agree with John Downing, on a number of points.

"It can get pretty boring and annoying for those of us (Old Sun and New) still putting out a paper every day to hear about 'the good old days' and about how great the paper used to be. That was then, this is now. Things change. How long can you bemoan changes before you move on?

"Downing is right, it was faces that made the Sun great, faces with opinions, with attitude, faces in News, Sports, Entertainment, Money. Some of those faces are gone, some are still there, and some are new, but they all still have opinions and attitude.

"And given the bodies available, it still kicks the crap out of some of the bigger, lumbering behemoths.

"Another way to look at it is we ARE back in the ’70s, in the sense that we're a little paper again, staff-wise, battling the big guys and holding our own with no where to go but up.

"Maybe that's whistling in the graveyard, maybe not, but it sure beats the 'in the good old days' stuff I read a lot of here."

Thank you for your comments, Wayne.

2 comments:

  1. Good points Wayne.

    And it's not really about the Old Days, for me anyway, its about Today, where a great title is being ground into the ground by a management policy set in Montreal by a meglamaniac. It's a singular, destructive vision.

    It's not about doing what it used to do, it's about doing what is should do to meet the expectations of the marketplace as it is currently defined.

    Do any of the people working there feel that if they had a viable idea or vision to introduce a feature, a direction, take a story and spin it with direct regard for their local market and corporate vision be damned that they would get a nanosecond of consideration?

    That's the point. Not about dragging up things done in the 70s....the Sun just isn't that controversial anymore......really.

    Once in a while but not consistently and for that I point the finger at milqutoast executives in Montreal.

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  2. Ian, what exactly are the "expectations of the marketplace" for newspapers and how are they currently defined? If you can answer that question then you're a much smarter man than I, and apparently of many owners and staff as well. And in a city like Toronto, what is the "local" market?

    The newspapers in North America that haven't reduced their production or folded outright are hemorrhaging cash, as are the TV networks and magazines. If it was just a matter of identifying a niche and stepping into it then we would all be doing that. But I suspect that it's more about redefining the culture than the marketplace.

    There will always be a place for newspapers, and for the Sun. And yes, people here believe that they can introduce a story idea or feature and run with it. The local content is not directed from elsewhere. (And by the way, I don't ever remember the Sun being CONSISTENTLY controversial.)

    Wayne Janes

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