Sherri Woodstock

Bob Bishop, a former Toronto Sun colleague of Sherri Wood, designed this logo to officially set in motion a tribute concert to honour the late club and concert writer.

Introduction of the perfect logo today by Bob, now at the Toronto Star, is fitting - it would have been Sherri's 29th birthday. She died on Easter Monday from brain cancer.

Bill Brioux, another former Sun colleague, is directing readers of his TV Feeds My Family blog to a new Facebook page set up to solicit ideas and recruit volunteers for Sherri Woodstock.

"To celebrate her memory and spirit, as well as nudge along plans for a fundraising music concert salute, a Facebook site has been launched in her honor," Bill says in his blog. "If you are already a Facebook member, please feel free to check it out. If not, join it, join us, and help make this event happen."

Bill says organizing the concert "will take ideas and inspiration from many sources."

Judging by the flood of emotions and online tributes to Sherri, there will be no shortage of ideas, inspiration and volunteers.

Stay tuned to Bill's blog, Facebook and TSF for updates.

TorSun awards

A TSF tip of the hat to Toronto Sun crime beat vet Rob Lamberti, reporter Don Peat and freelance photog John Hanley for winning Toronto Professional Fire Fighters' Association awards.

It is a bittersweet win for Rob, 50, and Don, 26, in the print media best story category - coverage of a townhouse fire that killed a mother and two young children.

John, 22, a Loyalist College journalism student, won best news photo in print for newspapers with circulation over 100,000 for a rooming house fire last fall.

The awards will be presented May 20 at the Palais Royale.

Take a flyer

Sensitivity 101: Drinking and driving and running down pedestrians is not the least bit amusing.

The above cartoon for a Winnipeg Sun used car dealership flyer clearly indicates the anti-drinking and driving campaigns of police and MADD still have miles and miles to travel.

In 2008, this ad is beyond belief. We'll let the description of the McDougall Auto Superstore ad by Winnipeg Free Press reporter James Turner set the scene:

"The full-colour, letter-sized cartoon insert depicts five red-nosed people partying in a car being driven irresponsibly by a wild-eyed man.

"As the driver speeds through a red light at a crosswalk, a police officer appears to be fleeing for his life as the vehicle tries to run him down.

"Passengers in the vehicle are also depicted to be consuming what appears to alcohol and smoking - others vomit out the car’s window into the street.

"The flyer, placed in the Winnipeg Sun by McDougall Auto Superstore, a city used auto dealership, asks readers to “steal a deal off our lot.”

What is more incredulous is the ad appeared a week after Tony Lanzellotti, 55, a Winnipeg cab driver, was killed when a stolen SUV ran a red light and crashed into his taxi.

Readers complained to the Sun; Winnipeg police complained to the dealership; Sam Katz, the city's mayor, said it was "in very poor taste"; Kevin Klein, Sun publisher and CEO, apologized to readers and the car dealership cancelled plans to repeat the ad.

"We certainly apologize to anyone who may have been offended by this ad," Klein said in Tuesday's Sun.

Klein said the Sun doesn't review insert ads for content but "we need to review our policy for inserts."

Say what, Kevin? A hard core porno flyer, hate literature or other objectionable material could be inserted without the knowledge of management?

OK, but what the hell was the "outside agency" that created the ad for the car dealership thinking and the dealership for approving it?

Yes, sad to say, police and Mothers Against Drunk Driving have a lot more work to do.

OttSun countdown

The Ottawa Sun has launched a five-month countdown to its 20th anniversary on Sept. 4.

"We plan to celebrate right up to our anniversary date, beginning today with a 20th anniversary slash affixed to our front page," Rick Gibbons says in today's Ottawa Sun.

"In the course of the next few months, we'll highlight some of this newspaper's many achievements, including some memorable front pages. We'll even plan a party or two to mark two decades in Ottawa."

Gibbons also updates Ottawa Sun readers on the refurbishing of its printing press, abandoned with the questionable move to a new Quebecor printing plant in Mirabel in 2006.

"In the past few months, we've been busy refurbishing and re-opening the Ottawa Sun's printing press so that Ottawa's best tabloid is again printed in Canada's best city," he writes.

Gibbons also says the Ottawa Sun wants reader input and next Tuesday "a senior manager" will be taking calls from readers from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

A 20th anniversary, a return to Ottawa presses, an open line for reader feedback. Positive news in 2008, in contrast to the downturn in staff numbers and morale in previous years.

Scribes invasion

Downtown Toronto will be thick with newspaper types in the week leading up to the May 9 National Newspaper Awards ceremonies at the Westin Harbour Castle.

The large number of publishers, editors, columnists, reporters and photographers from across Canada will be gathering for two events: the Canadian Newspaper Association's annual conference, May 7, 8 and 9, and the annual Canadian Press dinner on May 8.

Sun staffers feeling left out in the cold in the NNA nominations department can still mingle with the print media masses on awards night for $175, or book a table for 10 for $1,750.

"The evening offers an excellent opportunity to meet and mingle with people from the daily newspaper industry," the CNA says in a CNW Group press release.

While no Sun entries are up for awards, one of two guest emcees on awards night will be Christina Spencer, Sun Media's parliamentary correspondent.

Spencer will be sharing emcee duties with the Toronto Star's Linwood Barclay, a Stephen Leacock award nominee and best-selling mystery writer, says the CNW press release.

The gala begins with a reception at 5 p.m., followed by a banquet dinner at 6:30. and then the awards, with "prominent newspaper personalities from the past and present" presenting the NNAs.

The NNAs, with 63 finalists in 21 categories, are being held in Toronto for the first time since 2003.

For awards night reservations, e-mail Bryan Cantley at bcantley@cna-acj.ca or Lee White at nna@cna-acj.ca

We're OK Jack

You would think all of the media gloom and doom south of the border would be mirrored in Canada, but not so says a new Canadian Newspaper Association report.

A CNW Group press release says Canada's daily newspapers remained stable in 2007, "with robust growth in online ad sales offsetting a mild decline in print advertising."

"This is in sharp contrast to the U.S., where a contracting economy helped drive print ad revenues to the biggest year over year fall in more than half a century," says the CNA report.

The CNA report contains revenue results from circulation, print and online activities from 93 daily newspapers, representing over 95% of daily circulation in Canada.

As a TSF reader says: "Maybe the sky isn't falling after all."

Chinese link

Sun Media is buying into another Toronto newspaper - the Chinese-language Toronto Daily News, the corporation announced today.

A Marketwire press release says Sun Media and Toronto Daily News have inked a deal that allows Sun Media to buy 50% interest in the newspaper, "subject to certain terms and conditions of closing."

Toronto Daily News, launched in 2005, caters to the estimated 500,000 Chinese-speaking people living in the GTA.

"The profile and growth of the Chinese community in the Greater Toronto Area is impressive," says Kin-Man Lee, Sun Media's executive vp and Toronto Sun publisher. "The partnership with Today Daily News helps us become a larger part of that community."

Lee also says the deal will also allow for "synergies in distribution services, editorial content, advertising opportunities and promotion and marketing."

Multicultural media holdings. An interesting concept.

Re John Walsh

It is time for us all - media, police, law-abiding citizens, TV viewers, parents, victims of crime etc. - to salute John Walsh.

Walsh, an untiring crime fighter since his six-year-old son Adam was abducted and murdered in Florida in 1981, is closing in on his 1,000th capture as host of America's Most Wanted.

Saturday's program included the latest of AMW's 995 captures: murderers, rapists, child molesters, bank robbers, con artists, kidnappers, street thugs and assorted other criminals.

It would be fitting for print and broadcast media to mark the milestone 1000th capture in this, the 20th anniversary year of AMW, with a unified thank you for all he has accomplished.

When his son was abducted, murdered and beheaded, Walsh, a builder of high-end luxury hotels, and his wife, Reve, sought justice. Frustrated by the bureaucracy of child abduction investigations, he sought a better way.

The better way, a weekly venue with millions of armchair crime fighting viewers, was as host of Fox TV's America's Most Wanted, launched in 1988 with him at the helm. Except for the program's brief time off the air, his passion for the job has been unrelenting.

AMW case profiles are televised across North America and viewed world wide on AMW's web site. Decades-old cold cases have been solved; long forgotten John and Jane Does have been identified with the slimmest of clues; dozens of abducted children have been reunited with their parents.

The "America" in the program's name is truly America, including Canada and Mexico. Walsh and his AMW staff have been good to Canadian police forces and Canadian viewers have been instrumental in the captures of numerous criminals on the run.

Dennis Melvin Howe hasn't been apprehended for the 1983 sex slaying of Sharin' Morningstar Keenan, 9, in a midtown Toronto roominghouse, but John Walsh did his part in profiling the case numerous times. Other Canadian cases have had repeated airings.

While AMW broadcasts have directly been responsible for the apprehension of 995 criminals, the abduction and murder of Adam Walsh remains open. A prime suspect, Ottis Toole, died in prison while serving life for other crimes.

So there has been no justice for Adam, but his legacy is a safer and more enlightened society, thanks to a father who refused to surrender to red tape and numerous roadblocks.

John Walsh, father, author, the driving force behind the 2006 Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act and widely honoured by community and police organizations, turns 63 in December.

Someday, he will retire as host of America's Most Wanted and when that day comes, John Walsh will be sincerely missed by all but the criminal element.

The pending 1,000th capture in his 20th year as AMW host is the perfect time to collectively praise Walsh for fighting the good fight.

New LFP look

The London Free Press is being redesigned and the new look will be unveiled April 14, says editor- in-chief Paul Berton in a blog he shares with other editors.

"Lots of changes, many new features, a new look, but the same paper at heart, with a focus on local news and local events," Berton tells readers.

"And more references to lfpress.com, videos, special features on the web, etc."

One cynical blogger at From My Bottom Step wonders if the Sun Media newspaper has the manpower to make a difference locally after all of the cutbacks and staff losses in recent years.

"The real truth is that the LFP out-of-town corporate owner did a hatchet job on staff in order to increase profitability and the paper is incapable of delivering more than a small fraction of the local coverage that it once could," says the local blogger.

EdSun bash

The Edmonton Sun's 30th anniversary bash in a hangar at Fort Edmonton Park Friday night drew about 500 current and former staffers and guests.

“It was fantastic," Edmonton Sun publisher and CEO David Black says in an EdSun story. "It was after 1 a.m. when people started piling out of there.”

Among the guests, Pierre Karl Peladeau, Quebecor's CEO, Sun Media president and CEO Michael Sifton and Bill Bagshaw, the Edmonton Sun’s first publisher.

One lucky couple, Frank and Sheri Landry, won the grand prize for the evening draw and wrote about the entire evening on their blog, Landry's Laundry.

"Frank/we won a 4 day, 3 night Pacific Northwest cruise from Seattle to Victoria to Nanaimo and back, including airfare in October," says the posting. "We are pretty excited as neither of us has been on a cruise."

Black said having Bagshaw and other former Sun notables at the party was a highlight.

“It was nice to just look back and take a trip down memory lane."

The anniversary bash was held in the Blatchford Field Air Hanger at Fort Edmonton Park.

It's encouraging to see Sun Media do it up right for the 30th after the Edmonton Sun shared in cutbacks and staff cuts all of the tabloids endured prior to last summer.

Shades of the traditional pre-Quebecor Sun parties Doug Creighton used to throw to thank loyal employees.

The next milestone for Sun Media tabloids is the 20th anniversary of the Ottawa Sun on Sept. 4.