Dunlops: Calgary

The Calgary Sun is first off the mark to post its share of Sun Media's 2007 Dunlop Awards, announced today.

Stuart Dryden won the national spot news photography award for his exclusive photo of three-year-old Kate Williams, the sole survivor of a fatal plane crash near Golden, B.C.;

The prestigious J. Douglas Creighton Award goes to Rick Bell, a 16-year veteran reporter/columnist;

Al Charest, photo editor, won a top multimedia award for an audio slide show following the Virginia Tech shooting spree that left dozens of students and teachers dead;

Cherest and members of his staff - Brett Gundlock, Darren Makowichuk and Jim Wells - earned an honourable mention in the same category for their Remembering a Hero audio slideshow, a tribute to Calgary's Cpl. Nathan Hornburg, killed in Afghanistan in September.

Brett Gundlock also won in the multimedia feature category for his Josh, at home on the Streets, documenting the life of a drug-addicted home man;

Jim Wells also earned honourable mention for his A Year in His Life piece about a young man left paralysed after a quad accident.

Jose Rodriguez, editor-in-chief, says in a story by Nadia Moharib he's pleased with the Calgary Sun's performance in the annual awards.

“I’m very, very pleased at how our team did,” he said. “We absolutely cleaned up in multimedia.”

Click on the highlighted links to view the winning multimedia entries.

The awards, in honour of Edward A. Dunlop, founding president of the Toronto Sun, have been awarded annually since 1985. feature documenting the life of drug-addicted homeless man.

Journal milestone

Updated re CBC report
Media reporter Grant Robertson writes a first anniversary piece for the Journal de Quebec lockout and strike in today's Globe and Mail.

Robertson says to mark the one-year anniversary, the 252 locked out and striking employees will print more than 70,000 copies of their free MediaMatin tabloid today, up from 40,000.

"By comparison, Le Journal's circulation is roughly 100,000," says Robertson, who talks to both sides in the dispute.

Meanwhile, a CBC report about the one-year anniversary says the newspaper employees blame Quebec CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau for the standoff.

It is a father and son thing, one veteran Journal employee told the CBC. There was never a lockout or strike with Pierre Sr. at the helm until he died in 1997.

Ott presses

You can almost hear the Ottawa Sun presses starting up again with the latest Help Wanted ad for four printing press operators.

The Service Canada ad posted Monday is more detailed than most Help Wanted ads when it comes to "skill requirements," but the message is clear - they want applicants to start work ASAP.

Ottawa Sun readers will benefit from the return to sanity after printing the tabloid two hours away in Mirabel, Que. for more than a year. Fewer distribution delays, later deadlines etc.

As described, working conditions for printing press operators include excessive noise, standing for extended periods, physically demanding, requires working under pressure etc.

So who would want to be a printing press operator?

Guys like the now unemployed Toronto Sun press operators, a dedicated crew described by the late, great Doug Creighton as the best of the best and essential to the success of the Sun.

Doug made sure annual reports and special supplements reporting on the inner workings of Sun newspapers always included the unsung heroes who manned the presses.

When the presses at 333 King Street East were silenced recently, many of the pressmen putting their final paper on the streets had 25-plus years on the job.

It is an end of an era for Toronto Sun editors, who were always in control of press runs into the early hours of the morning.

Odds & Ends

A Canadian Press story in the Toronto Star yesterday said Sun Media had laid off 16 editorial employees in November "as it continued the technology-driven centralization of its newspaper group's operation." Say what? News to us. Who and where?

The dawn of a new day tomorrow marks the first anniversary of the lockout and strike at the Journal de Quebec in Quebec City. No celebrations for the 252 Sun Media employees involved, who continue to publish the free weekday tabloid MediaMatin while waiting for Quebecor to resume talks.

The Edmonton Sun is the first Sun Media newspaper that we know of to provide links to award winning photographs in online stories. Bravo. It's about time. The same should apply to all award winning Sun Media photographs, stories, features and columns.

The Toronto Sun lost its dedicated pressroom employees and on site presses at 333 King Street East when operations recently moved to Quebecor's new plant in Islington. But on the positive side, employees gained a couple of dozen precious parking spaces in the loading dock area.

Why are Andy Donato's editorial cartoons not always in colour?

A TSF reader left a comment about our 2 Tracys posting saying there is nothing wrong with a freelance reporter filing to more than one newspaper. True, but how may freelance writers use different last names for their bylines? Are we alone in thinking it's odd?

The Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton Suns are participating in this week's Gutenberg Media Grab, with media providing discounted online space in support of adult literacy in Canada. The online sale of media space runs through Friday.

Out Calgary way, Glen Wheland, former assistant managing editor at the Calgary Sun, has been hired by Hill & Knowlton Canada as account director. The firm deals with "crisis communications clients." Is that like dealing with reporters at deadline?

Conrad's finger

Updated 04/22/08

Dave Chidley says Conrad Black can give him the finger anytime, anywhere.

Chidley, a former veteran Sun Media photographer now with Canadian Press, snapped up a first prize at the News Photographers Association of Canada awards in Vancouver yesterday for a photo of Black's finger flip.

The award-winning photographer won $500 for the best 2007 Spot News photo of the year, snapped in Chicago last July during one of Black's numerous court appearances on fraud charges.

It's doubtful the disgraced media baron will be flipping his finger at media any time soon. He's serving 6 1/2 years in a Florida prison.

Chidley worked for Sun Media for more than 23 years, first as an intern at the Toronto Sun in 1982, then fulltime at the Calgary Sun for 17 years and six years at the London Free Press.

In October of 2006, Quebecor's erratic cutbacks cost the 1997 National Newspaper Award winner his job - one of many talented people lost to Sun Media.

Meanwhile . . .

Sun Media photogs from Edmonton, Calgary and London were front and centre at NPAC's second annual National Pictures of the Year awards banquet in Vancouver. (CBC story)

Edmonton Sun photographers Jason Franson, Darryl Dyck and Tim Smith cleaned up in the Feature/Enterprise category, winning first and second prizes and an honourable mention in a crowd of 221 entries.

First: Franson - Swinging soldier; Second: Dyck - Trees and skaters; Honourable Mention: Smith - Swimmer.

Dyck also picked up an honourable mention in the Sports Action category for a rodeo photo.

Brett Gundlock of the Calgary Sun won third prize in the Multimedia category for his Joshua Sager - Homeless in Calgary entry.

And in the Pictorial category, Derek Ruttan of the London Free Press earned an honourable mention for his "water drop" entry.

Congrats to all.

Hopefully, photographers from the Toronto and Ottawa Suns will be in the running for the 2008 awards.

A CNW Group press release lists all of the winners and honourable mentions chosen from more than 2,200 entries submitted by 123 photojournalists.

All of the winning photos can be viewed online at www.npac.ca/npoy/

The 2 Tracys

There they were again, twice in the past week - almost identical stories in the Toronto Sun and Barrie Examiner by Tracy McLaughlin and Tracy McConkey respectively.

We are befuddled. It's kinda like a Joe Warmington column here and a Joe Warming column there, or a Peter Worthington column here and a Peter Worthing column there. Can't say we've ever seen this before.

Readers of the Sun Media newspapers in Toronto and Barrie probably couldn't care less, but what's the story from a newspaper's point of view?

Re Bruce Huff

Out of the blue, the e-mail arrived. Another Toronto Sun Family member updating TSF on his whereabouts since his exit in 1994 after 14 years.

Bruce Huff, a local baseball and hockey legend in his own time, was hired in 1980 by the late, great George Gross and served as assistant sports editor for eight years.

Bruce e-mailed to add his profile to our Hired '80s posting.

"From the wilds of London, Ontario, here's a voice from the past," said Bruce. "Thanks for letting an old guy indulge in a bit of nostalgia."

No grass has been growing under Bruce's shoes since he left the Sun in 1994, as his profile shows.

Bruce is in the Who's Who of Canadian Sports for writing for good reason.

Prior to the Sun, he worked at the Chatham Daily News for two years and London Free Press for 11 years. After leaving the Sun, he penned an Off the Cuff column for the Toronto Star and London Free Press.

"Sun times were fun times," says Bruce, father of two and grandfather of four. "Laughter amid chaos. Pride amid crisis. Thanks for the memories."

Bruce, who plays oldtimers hockey and is player/manager of an elite seniors slo-pitch team that plays across North America, has a birthday coming up on June 22.

All the best, oldtimer.

LFP's new look

Paul Berton, editor-in-chief of the London Free Press, responds to bouquets and barbs from readers responding to the redesigned paper in his column today.

The changes were introduced on Monday. Barbs have included moving the news section, placement of obits and "our new way of lettering the sections."

Berton notes nothing is written in stone "so next week, we'll go back to a simple A, B, C system. We apologize for the confusion."

Meanwhile, the Ottawa Sun, in its 20th year, opened the phone lines to readers this week. Management took calls for two hours.

"Many callers were relieved to hear that reopening the Sun presses in Ottawa this month has meant a return to earlier and more consistent home deliveries, with improved sports scores," says Rick Gibbons, publisher and CEO.

Among the reader requests: Larger print in TV listings for seniors and more obituaries.

People love their obits. As the late, great comedian George Burns used to say, he reads the obits every morning and if he's not in them, he gets out of bed.

Writing obits is beneath a lot of reporters, but if properly researched they can be the better reads of the day. Nobody does it better than the Globe and Mail.

Zen an ACE

Zen Ruryk, a veteran Toronto Sun reporter and city hall bureau chief, is moving back into the newsroom as an assistant city editor.

The one-year contract position was advertised recently as Gord Walsh was preparing to make his exit from the newsroom for a second time.

Gord, a Sun vet was managing editor when he made his first exit in February of 2007. He returned later in the year to help out on city desk after ACE Dave Ellis was seriously injured in a bicycle accident last fall.

Zen, a Sun staffer since 1984, will be working with Kevin Hann, who was named city editor last May.

No word yet on who will replace Zen as city hall bureau chief.

TorStar -122

Update 04/19/08
It appears former Toronto Sun staffer Joey Slinger's departure from the Toronto Star this week is only the first of many newsroom employees making their exit.

A Globe and Mail story today says 122 of the Toronto Star's 1,790 employees have accepted voluntary buyouts in the trimming of Torstar's staff of 6,200.

The Canadian Press says the 122 Toronto Star job losses includes "the entire Internet production staff."

TSF tipsters have provided a few Toronto Star newsroom names soon to vanish, but we'll wait until their departures are official.

Word is Al Christie, another former Toronto Sun staffer, has taken a buyout. He has been national editor at the Star.

“These are people who applied for and were granted voluntary separation packages,” Torstar spokesman Bob Hepburn says in John Partridge's Globe story.

Dozens of other jobs in Torstar's newspaper division will also be cut through "voluntary and involuntary staff reductions.”

Overall, about 160 newspaper division positions will be affected.

CP says the Toronto Star's Internet staff layoffs (10 employees) came as a surprise to Maureen Dawson, an official with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada.

"Their message to the world is that they're all dedicated to the Internet, but then they lay off the whole department," she told CP.

BTW: 122 job cuts at the Star represent roughly the size of the Toronto Sun's entire editorial staff. Sun employees tend to gloat after scooping the mighty Star, Canada's largest newspaper.

There has always been a lot of deadwood collecting pay cheques at 1 Yonge Street. Unfortunately, more senior, productive staffers are often lost to buyouts.