New papers 2

We haven't heard from the former Sun Media employees in Alberta who have decided to publish papers in areas abandoned by Quebecor, but reaction to the idea has been mostly positive.

Perhaps that is the answer for hundreds of laid off and fired Sun Media employees - find paperless communities and, with the committed support of local advertisers, launch new papers.

All you need, as did the 62 Toronto Sun Day Oners is 1971, are the need to succeed, a commitment to journalism, computers, a reliable core of advertisers and a local printer.

Remain independent and remain focused on local news, sports and entertainment. Let the communities know their needs are a priority.

As one of the TSF readers puts it: "The future of newspapers is in small-towns, with independent owners. You'll never be able to read what happened around the council tables of Morinville or Nanton without local papers that care about their communities, not just the almighty dollar. That's why dailies are dying. Good luck to the new papers!"

We second that emotion. There are numerous independent publishers across Canada, publishing newspapers and special interest publications. Some are free thanks to sufficient ads and others have subscription fees.

A move away from conglomerate ownership of newspapers could become a movement with dedicated journalists at the helm. New versions of Doug Creighton, Peter Worthington and Don Hunt.

One of our dream scenarios is the Toronto Sun never went public in 1981 and the nightmare called Quebecor was never allowed to evolve. The Sun never allowed politicians and bean counters in the front door. It remained independent and feisty and committed to the needs of readers with a proven tabloid formula.

But hey, that's just us.

Canadian journalists burned by conglomerates shouldn't give up on journalism. Arrange meetings of minds and start anew.

If you fail, at least you tried. If you succeed, well, just ask Toronto Sun Day Oners how that feels.

And if you need a semi-retired former Sun rewrite guy to handle your news copy via the Internet, let me know. The prospect of new community newspapers springing up is invigorating.

Here's to Lew

Toronto Sun copy desk vet Lew Fournier has left the building after taking a buyout, but before he departed he was interviewed by Ryerson's Greg Harris.

The intro reads: The Toronto Sun’s Lew Fournier is a whiz at writing tabloid headlines. Sadly, he’s the master of a dying art.

The Ryerson Review of Journalism story can now be read online here.

Abel's NNA win

Toronto Sun photographer Dave Abel was disappointed when Quebecor axed the 2008 Dunlop Awards, but was all smiles last night when he heard his dramatic bank robbery takedown won a National Newspaper Award.

We're not sure if Abel paid his own way to Montreal because of the Quebecor ban on awards expenses or sat it out in T.O., but fellow photojournalists and readers generally agreed his amazing February 2008 News Photography non was the one to beat.

The Canadian Press has all of the details from the 60th annual NNA awards gala in Montreal, which saw the Globe and Mail dominating the wins with six of the 22 awards and again provides links to winning entries in its NNA story.

The Toronto Star was next with four, followed by Montreal's La Presse and the Hamilton Spectator with two each, says the CP story.

The Canadian Press, Toronto Sun, Calgary Herald, London Free Press, Montreal Gazette, Lethbridge Herald, Simcoe Reformer and Ottawa Citizen had one each.

Once again petty corporate Quebecor/Sun Media will take the spotlight in announcing major awards while refusing to tell readers nominees have to foot all of their expenses if they want to attend awards ceremonies.

But well done, Dave, and congrats to all of the other winners.

(NNA noms list can be viewed here re links to most entries.)

Missing kids

When nine-year-old Colin Wilson vanished from his westend Toronto home in the 1970s, his mother, who had been raising him alone, could not be reached by the media.

For days, relatives and friends shielded her from reporters who called on the telephone or arrived at her apartment building in search of interviews.

We thought she was in isolation by choice.

Then one day, the Toronto Sun's David Somerville and this reporter were assigned to try again. We arrived at the entrance to her building, buzzed her apartment and she answered.

The blockade of friends and relatives around her had been lifted, perhaps temporarily, and she buzzed us into the building.

We arrived at her apartment, she invited us in and for the next hour, we sat at her kitchen table talking to her about Colin and her feelings about his disappearance. She thanked us for being interested in what she had to say.

Talking to us was comforting, she said. She had wanted to talk to the media, but people around her thought it best she didn't and they intervened.

Colin's mother was allowed to vent and we had our exclusive front page interview.

Her son was never found and no arrests were made. There would be more missing children, more distraught parents to approach for interviews, but Colin's mother taught us not all is what it seems when it comes to the parents of missing children.

Fast-forward to Woodstock 2009, with Victoria "Tori" Stafford's mother, Tara, holding almost daily press conferences on her front lawn and people saying that was a strange way for a parent to handle the abduction of a child.

Along the way, she told reporters without the press conferences, the media might lose interest and Tori's story would fade away. And generally, with much credit to Tara and Canadian print, broadcast and Internet media, Tori's story never faded.

Canadians and the media never lost interest in the fate of Tori, all the while hoping she was still alive because she was abducted by a woman and why would a woman want to harm a child? Killer Karla was a freakish anomaly in Canadian crime, wasn't she?

While watching TV footage today of Tori's abductor helping police locate the youngster's body, we could hear a collective gasp from Canadians saying to themselves, not again - not another Deal with the Devil that allowed Karla Homolka to see the light of day again.

That is the next chapter in Tori's abduction and murder and until it is over, we welcome every comment made by her mother and father, unedited and from the heart.

Meanwhile, Woodstock, a town of 35,000 that has been occasionally branded a Town Without Pity since Tori vanished April 8, has some soul searching to do.

Along with talk shows, Facebook and other web sites that have been fueling unchallenged gossip.

Trust us, gossip unchallenged becomes fact in the minds of the gullible.

New papers?

A TSF reader in Alberta writes:

"Word has it former Sun Media staff have started up newspapers in Nanton and Morinville where offices were closed and amalgamated into other locations. Kudos to them."

Please tell us more. We would like to salute them by name and promote their community newspaper efforts.

New WS-R pub

The Woodstock Sentinel-Review has a new publisher.

News of Andrea DeMeer's arrival came on the day when the small town's biggest story broke with the arrests of two Victoria Tori Stafford abduction/murder suspects.

DeMeer, in the news biz for more than 23 years, will also be publisher of the Sentinel-Review's associated publications. We wish her well.

The newspaper's online story says DeMeer joined Sun Media as an Ontario Farmer reporter, later worked for the Paris Star as its editor and then publisher of the Brantford Pennysaver Smart Shopper.

Her resume also includes a weekly column published in several communities including Paris, Chatham and Stratford, for 20 years.

Powered media

A TSF reader sent us a YouTube interview with Igor Smirnoff, taped at the 2008 Monaco Media Forum on the future of e-papers.

"Who needs paper?" asks the TSF reader.

In the five-minute clip, Smirnoff promotes Newspaper Direct's Pressdisplay.com, an international source for newspapers, and he demonstrates several portable gadgets designed for user-paid newspaper reading.

One phone/monitor gadget didn't work. The battery had just died.

Update: We bought a print edition of the Toronto Sun today. Batteries not included - or needed.

Arrrrgoooos

Back in the day when the Toronto Sun held rehearsals for the first Sun-sponsored Toronto Argonaut cheerleaders, the young women involved were a welcomed plus.

The Sun being the Argos' official newspaper and cheerleader squad chief served the tabloid well for more than three decades until ties were severed.

But all is now well in T.O.

The Toronto Argonauts Football Club announced today it is returning to the Toronto Sun as the official newspaper of the team, says OurSportsCentral.com. As well, the 2009 Argos Cheerleaders will be presented by the Toronto Sun.

The Toronto Sun was home to the Argos for decades and now, after a short absence, is its print partner once again, says the web site.

The Argos also inked a deal with SUN TV for a weekly Argos Access half-hour show Tuesdays at 6 p.m. beginning June 9.

Protecting sources

While many policemen in North America retire without drawing their weapons, many journalists retire without being required to protect the identity of a source in court.

Frequent or not, the issue of confidentiality of Canadian news sources reaches the Supreme Court of Canada on Friday.

It is an appeal of an Ontario Court of Appeal ruling that the public interest in police investigations trumps the charter guarantee of free expression, Janice Tibbetts says in a Canwest News Service story today.

One to watch.

TorSun's global nod

The Toronto Sun earned a third place nod in the 2009 International Newsmedia Marketing Awards (INMA) competition.

A Media in Canada story says the Toronto Sun took third place in the New Marketing Services category for its 76-page special section marking the 100th anniversary of the Toronto Automobile Dealers Association.

Impressive, considering the number of entries: 531 from more than 150 newspapers in 43 countries - all judged via the Internet by 21 judges worldwide.

Top Canadian newspaper honours among the 90 INMA awards, presented at the 79th INMA World Congress in Miami, went to the Montreal Gazette, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and Winnipeg Free Press.

Kudos to the Toronto Sun's ad marketing team. Did Sun Media pick up your Miami tab - or is the prize in the mail?