Violin saga

The homeless woman in the lost-and-found $77,000 violin saga remains elusive, but she is still in the minds of Toronto Star columnists and readers.

Star columnist Joe Fiorito hit the bricks this week asking homeless people how $500 - half the reward money had the homeless woman received a share - would affect their lives. Apparently, $500 would go a long way in the pocket or purse of a homeless man or woman.

The Toronto Sun has dropped the ball on this story.

Meanwhile, the homeless woman who lost out on a share of the $1,000 reward last week when she surrendered the violin she found for $35 cash and a $40 pinky ring, has not been found.

Fiorito says in his Wednesday column, Wayne Wulff, the guy who collected the $1,000 reward, isn't returning phone calls.

EdSun photog

Congrats to award-winning Edmonton Sun photog Darryl Dyck once again, this time as a finalist in the 2007 Canadian Association of Journalists awards.

Darryl is nominated in the Photojournalism category, along with photographers at the Edmonton Journal and the Independent (St. John's).

The Edmonton Sun says Darryl is "the only photographer to ever win the Western Canadian News Photographer Association’s photo of the year award three times in a row."

Winning CAJ entries each receive a $1,000 cash prize. Awards will be announced May 24 at the CAJ awards banquet in Edmonton.

Bye ABCs

Updated 04/17/08 re reaction to switch
Bye bye ABCs (Audit Bureau of Circulations), hello Canadian Circulation Audit Board.

Sun Media, TorStar and Transcontinental Media have adopted the new CCAB, says a Marketwire press release today.

Marketwire says Sun Media now has 44 newspapers registered for CCAB auditing, including the Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg and Ottawa Suns, London Free Press, Sarnia Observer, Beacon Herald (Stratford), Daily Observer (Pembroke), Recorder and Times (Brockville), Times-Journal (St. Thomas), Brantford Expositor, Le Journal de Montreal and Le Journal de Quebec.

The newspaper publishing companies believe such an advisory board is needed to ensure that the Canadian newspaper industry has the flexibility and control necessary to better manage business in changing times and to reflect unique Canadian perspectives on the future of the newspaper industry, says the Marketwire story.

Reaction to the switch from ABC drew negative response from "industry leaders."

We await the release of Sun Media's first CCAB figures.

Byline oddity

While surfing Sun Media online newspapers last night, discovered a Toronto Sun/Barrie Examiner byline oddity that raises a "what's the story?" question.

Toronto Sun

By Tracy McLaughlin, Special to Sun Media
Barrie - An Etobicoke man who once called himself the "Cut King" and bragged about his skills as a street racer hung his head in shame in the prisoner's box yesterday as he apologized for killing another man during a wild highway race.

Nauman Nusrat, 20, begged for mercy and forgiveness after pleading guilty to street racing causing the death of David Virgoe, 48, of Innisfil, during a frantic 44-km race against two buddies on Hwy. 400 last June 17.

He'll be sentenced May 18.

"I am a sinner, a murderer," Nusrat said to the Virgoe family, who sat weeping in the courtroom. "It was stupid . . . I did not know it would end in a nightmare."

As he spoke, his mother sat alone, silently weeping, in the front row of the court.

Etc.

Barrie Examiner:
Posted By Tracy McConkey

A man who once called himself the "Cut King" and bragged about his skills as a street racer hung his head in shame in the prisoner's box, yesterday, as he apologized for killing a trucker during a wild race on Highway 400.

Nauman Nusrat, 20, of Etobicoke, begged for mercy and forgiveness after pleading guilty to street racing causing the death of David Virgoe, 48, of Innisfil, during the frantic 44-kilometre race, June 17, 2007.

"I am a sinner, a murderer," Nusrat said to the Virgoe family, who sat weeping in the courtroom. "It was stupid. I did not know it would end in a nightmare."

As he spoke, his mother sat alone, silently weeping, in the front row of the court.

Etc.

Two almost identical Sun Media stories, one by Tracy McLaughlin and the other by Tracy McConkey.

So what's the story?

Is it time to call in the plagiarism police, or are the two Tracys one and the same?

If one and the same, why two different bylines?

Just asking.

Slinger retires

Joey Slinger, with 31 years of Toronto Star reporting and columns on his resume, retires today.

The former 1970s Toronto Sun gossip columnist turned 65 yesterday, which makes us wonder if the media vet's exit is voluntarily, or was he nudged out the door, cough, Jim Bawden, cough.

At the end of his final column today, Joey simply says: "This is my last column. I'm retiring. I will miss you. Nobody has ever had such glorious readers."

You don't quit journalism cold turkey. Joey no doubt has another 25 years in him, so we await word about why he's leaving the Star and what his next keyboard adventure will be.

We do know Joey's departure gives us another reason to not pick up the Star.

Sun vets have fond memories of the easy-going journalist, who got his start at the Guelph Mercury and made several stops along the way before joining the Sun.

As Francine Kopun says in today's Star story, he impressed all of his poke-and-hunt colleagues with his touch typing.

"I never counted on growing old, that was the surprise thing," Joey says in today's Star story, but 65 ain't old these days. It's a springboard into a few more decades of writing.

Joey, a Star columnist since 1979, must always have seemed like a cub reporter to Star sports legend Milt Dunnell, who died just recently at 102.

So here's hoping Joey's exit is 100% voluntary now that forced retirement at 65 is no longer in favour or warranted.

All the best, Joey.

Hey, how about a return to your old Sun digs and the poke-and-hunt crowd? You are too much of a Toronto icon to fade to black.

Sun fronts

Toronto Sun readers have had a love affair with the tabloid's unique front pages for almost four decades.

Thanks to Newseum's online daily front page submissions, Sun readers in Toronto and other Sun cities can create their own fave fronts collections.

Collect and catalogue the best of the best for free with a daily visit to the Newseum front pages site. Select North America in the "chose region" box.

Click on the newspaper's name or front page for a larger image, right click and save the image to your computer.

You can print them in full colour for framing, or create online slide shows. One regret is we didn't have this function during the first 30-plus years of award-winning front pages.

For media types, nothing tops framed front pages on the walls of rec rooms and home offices, especially if they are fronts with your line stories and/or photos.

Newseum's archival pages have some Sun fronts for major events:

The July 2005 London, England bombings;

The April 2007 Virginia Tech massacre;

The Barry Bonds' August 2007 historic home run, overshadowed on the front by a Kate Hudson summer romp exclusive;

The December 2007 tsunamis etc.

The 9/11 "Bastards" Toronto Sun front from 2001 is not in the Newseum archives, just fronts from the Globe and Mail and National Post.

Nat Press Club

The majority of press clubs in Canada have downsized or bolted their doors since the 1990s, but not the National Press Club of Canada.

The National Press Club in Ottawa turns 80 this year with a new location, a new membership drive and 14 newly elected board of directors.

"After some very difficult years, the National Press Club was saved through the efforts of many but particularly through the commitment of Tim Kane, Rosaleen Dickson, Ed Murad and Spencer Moore," Rennie MacKenzie, incoming president, said yesterday.

Tim Kane, outgoing president, says in a CNW Group press release: "The goodwill toward this Canadian institution is strong. We have a membership that now exceeds 100 persons, there is money in the bank and a great new location in downtown Ottawa."

The press club's web site tells the history of the club,

"It all started in January of 1928, when two young reporters, Francis Rowse of the Ottawa Journal and Guy Rhoades of the Ottawa Citizen, were drinking coffee in a Sparks Street lunchroom," says the site.

"They mused over the lack of any place in town to meet after work, a place for fellow journalists to rendezvous and talk shop. What Ottawa needed, they felt, was a club for newspapermen."

And the rest is history.

TorSun snoozing

The Toronto Sun newsroom has been snoozing since it published Kevin Connor's story about a $1,000 reward for a lost violin on Thursday - but not the Star.

The Sun appears to have abandoned the story about a homeless woman who found Jim Wallenberg's cherished $77,000 violin, but received only $35 and a $40 pinky ring from middleman Wayne Wulff instead of a larger share of the reward.

It is a tabloid story if there ever was one, but not a word in the Sun since Thursday.

The Star has published letters to the editor daily since Thursday; Kathy English wrote about it Saturday in her Public Editor column and Joe Fiorito devotes his column to it today.

All but one of the Star's letters to the editor in the print edition said the homeless woman, living out of a shopping cart in downtown Toronto, wasn't treated fairly and should receive a larger share of the $1,000 reward.

Absolutely.

New Freep

Paul Berton, editor-in-chief of the London Free Press, has devoted a full column to what readers can expect when picking up tomorrow's redesigned newspaper.

The first revamping of the Sun Media paper since 2001 will include cosmetic and content changes, but word is it won't be a new tabloid format. Advertisers apparently nixed the tab idea months ago.

"The headline fonts have changed, but the print you're reading now is exactly the same as it will be in Monday's paper," says Berton. "The same size, the same type, the same space between the letters and the lines."

The news pages will be moved up front, new features will be introduced etc.

Naiman zone

When Sandy Naiman left the building in January of 2007 after 30 years at the Toronto Sun, we knew this Lifestyle writer wouldn't gather any dust.

As of this week, Sandy, a tireless mental health advocate, is a featured writer on the Toronto Star's new HealthZone.ca web site, writing a mental health column every Tuesday and Thursday.

Sandy's lifetime battle with a mental disorder that doctors rebranded several times is an open book and her Coming Out Crazy column introduces HealthZone readers to her experiences.

"So, welcome to my world," Sandy tells readers. "Twice a week, I'm going to explore all kinds of mental health issues, news and views. Mine and yours. I invite your comments, questions, concerns and criticisms."

Sandy's world in 2008 also includes being a public speaker, Seneca College instructor and freelance writer.

She is one busy - and productive - journalist.

JDM would be proud of his former Ryerson student.