Sun photogs shine

Updated 03/21/08
Several photographers at the Edmonton and Calgary Suns have been nominated for 2007 News Photographers Association of Canada awards, but the Toronto and Ottawa Suns came up empty.

A CNW Group press release says the Edmonton Sun's Darryl Dyck, Jason Franson and Tim Smith are nominated separately for photos in the Feature/Enterprise category.

Dyck is also nominated in the Sports Action category and is a portfolio finalist for the 2007 Canadian Photojournalist of the Year award.

The Calgary Sun's Brett Gundlock has been nominated in the Multimedia category.

The closest nomination link to the Toronto Sun is Dave Chidley, who moved to the London Free Press only to be laid off. He's now with Canadian Press and nominated for the Spot News award.

Winners will be announced April 19 during NPAC's annual National Pictures of the Year gala in Vancouver.

Congrats to all.

And a big round of applause for NPAC for setting up a web site slide presentation for photographs nominated for awards. It is an excellent bonus for nominated photographers and for people interested in viewing the nominated photos.

Andy the golfer

As an artist/cartoonist, the Toronto Sun's Andy Donato has hit countless holes-in-one with his artistic and award-winning labour of love over the decades.

But that ultimate achievement on the golf course, his other passion, eluded him until this week at the Live Oak Golf Course in Bacon Park, Savannah.

"Yes, I finally got a hole in one at the Live Oak course in Bacon Park, Savannah - 146 yards into the wind with a 4 iron, one hop and in," says Andy in a TSF e-mail.

"I thought it was off the back of the green, but my friend Tom MacMillan said 'I think it's in.'"

In it was and then it was back to the game.

Congrats, Andy.

Achieving that rare golf feat must be worth a cartoon or two.

And it should almost compensate for the multi-million dollar lottery jackpot you missed out on by one number.

Rodeo roundup

TSF rarely gets the opportunity to talk about rodeo writers, but a tip of the cowboy hat to Dwayne Erickson, a former Edmonton and Calgary Suns vet.

Erickson, 70, still covering the rodeo beat for the Calgary Herald, became a 2008 Alberta Sports Hall of Fame inductee this week.

As Herald reporter John Down wrote the other day, Erickson was reluctant when "Edmonton Journal sports editor Hal Pawson asked him to cover a rodeo in 1958."

"I didn't know the back end of a horse from the front end," Erickson told Down. "I really didn't want to do it, but Hal told me I either covered it or should look for another job."

A half century later, The Cowboy is still in the saddle.

His rodeo columns have been in the Edmonton and Calgary Suns along the way. The former Edmonton Sun sports editor was at the Calgary Sun when he covered his first Calgary Stampede in 1982.

Down's story says Erickson was inducted into the Canadian Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2003.

Well done, pardner.

Sun Media's side

With several Canadian labour unions launching a cross-Canada tour focused on the 10-month-old Journal de Quebec lockout/strike, Sun Media has decided to tell its side of the story.

This release, with Luc Lavoie, executive vice president of Quebecor Inc., listed as the contact, was posted yesterday on marketwire.com and reads:

"Since Le Journal de Quebec Union, with the full support of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the Quebec Federation of Labour (FTQ) and the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), have decided to embark on a cross-Canadian tour to justify a work stoppage that has been going on for more than 10 months, Sun Media Corporation felt that it is essential to have a full picture of the real situation.

Did you know?

- The employees of Le Journal de Quebec work 32 hours a week on a 4-day basis.

- On average, the employees are present at work 40 weeks per year, but are paid for 52 weeks.

- On average, the annual earnings of the following categories of employees are:

- Desk Editor: over $100,000

- Head Pressman: over $109,000 (25-hour work week instead of 32)

- Photographer: over $86,000

- Reporter: over $83,000

- Pressman: over $76,000 (24-hour work week instead of 32)

- Classified Ads: over $59,000

- There are 4 bargaining units at Le Journal de Quebec. One bargaining unit representing the Sales force has successfully reached a collective agreement and is not on work stoppage.

- 115 members have been on strike since April 22, 2007 (Press, Prepress and Maintenance). The other 137 members are locked out (office and newsroom).

Sun Media Proposal

- Sun Media is not asking for a reduction of the take-home pay of its employees.

- Sun Media feels that employees should work 37 1/2 hours a week on a 5-day basis. Sun Media is also asking its employees to be present at work on average 42 weeks per year out of 52.

- The employees currently on work stoppage are receiving approximately the same net salary that they would if they were working, because the Quebec Labour laws and related tax provisions allow for union compensation to be tax free.

- Sun Media requires the necessary flexibility to be able to use the content produced by the papers on other platforms.

- Sun Media is in the process of making substantial investments in the design and creation of the most modern website for the Journal de Quebec. This investment is a matter of survival for the paper and can only be justified if the content produced by the paper can be made available online.

- Sun Media has decided to follow suit with other news organizations in North America by rationalizing its Call Centre operations. In practical terms, this means that unfortunately some people will have to be laid off. However Sun Media is offering generous packages and relocation opportunities to the employees impacted by this decision.

- The legacy model of newspaper/dedicated printing operations is quickly disappearing. In order to keep the printing facility in operation at Le Journal de Quebec, Sun Media is proposing to make it operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for other commercial products, therefore saving the employment of the Press people. Otherwise, the only choice would be to opt for outsourcing as more and more newspaper organizations in North America are doing. In the present newspaper-industry circumstances maintaining this printing facility can only be justified if the collective agreement allows for commercial printing other than the newspaper itself."

End of press release.

That said, the lockout/strike will mark its 11th month on March 22. There are 252 employees who want to return to work but no talks are scheduled.

If you want Sun Media to be one harmonious and profitable family, it is time to talk and bring an end to this prolonged spat.

McQueen McGone

Sun Media columnist Ann Marie McQueen is leaving the roost this week after eight years to work for a new English-language newspaper in Abu Dhabi.

McQueen, based at the Ottawa Sun, broke the news to readers of her 18-month-old From Here blog on canoe.ca today.

"I have taken a job with a new national English-language newspaper launching in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and will be heading there at the end of the month," she writes.

"And though I have absolutely loved my time here at the Ottawa Sun, eight years doing everything from city hall to concert reviews, sometimes you get a great opportunity and you just gotta take it."

Of interest, she says her From Here blog on canoe.ca will continue from there. That should be an interesting read.

Meanwhile, McQueen's departure will leave the Toronto Sun surfing for a new op-ed columnist.

Memories of Art

Updated 03/12/08
Remembering Art Holland, the Toronto Sun's Day One office manager who died Saturday at 94:

Les Pyette, retired Toronto Sun CEO who was city editor in the 1970s:

"Art was so important to the growth of the Sun; he kept things orderly in the early days and had a hand helping set up the offices in our new papers in the west.

"I once spilled red wine (on his office white rug - please don't ask for details) in the old Sun building on King St. West. It was late at night and no place for a young city editor to be parked . . . Anyway, he scolded me for 20 years before we kissed and made up over dinner at my home in Calgary.

"He was a great guy with a quick wit. We should all be so lucky to enjoy life the way Art did."

Andy Donato, a Day Oner and veteran political cartoonist:

"Art Holland was the best building manager we ever had. He was a real gentleman and just a great guy.

He loved to paint and when his art teacher packed up and left Toronto, he asked me if I could take the group I was teaching at the time and combine them with his group.

Art arranged for me to rent his church's basement and I taught the group for about four months.

P.S.: You should find someone who knows the old Art Holland half a memo story."

John Downing, a Day Oner and former editor/political columnist, now retired:

"Art Holland is seldom mentioned in the glory stories of the Tely and Sun. But Art, a quiet, infuriating nit-picker, was our secret weapon, our shield against the treasuries of the Star and Globe.

He stood, perplexed, between old and new journalism, between paste pots and proof readers and computer layouts. But because he was a decent man, horrified at the drunken stars around him, he did his damndest, and most days, it was the best solution that could be found.

Art was the second person I met after Art Cole hired me in 1958 and to me was the chap who controlled every part of the job, from hours to assignments. Only later did I realize that he was a mirror of Cole's wishes and of the news events of the day. And I may be one of the few that know how he was to the Tely matching the greater resources of the Star. After all, I took over his job and always felt that I was perceived to be a success but he had done the job better.

Doug Creighton replaced Holland with me because Doug understood Art's value but wanted it done with a little more dash. Too bad, because Art never missed anything in his day file of bookings and I was a little more unorganized.

Under Doug, I was both assignment editor and his second-in-command, and no reporter or photog in any part of the Tely was not assigned by me, with the exception of sports. Art didn't have that much power or reach, but he did a wonderful job anyway.

Every day, he filed away every remand, every court date, every funeral, and everyone started the day with a sheaf of clippings and memos from Art. He sure could have used a computer.

At the Sun, he was a mysterious office manager who had his finger into everything. If you wanted a shelf in the washroom to put your glasses on while you washed your face, you went to Art, and he turned you down because he didn't think it was worth the cost.

Oh yes, he could make you furious, but the Sun prospered under his cranky stewardship, and Creighton, the great spender, appreciated how he kept expenses down. He watched everything, and drove us all nuts with his common sense mixed with petty frugality.

He was a loyal member of a church in Scarboro and after I gave the sermon one day on the boat people, he never mentioned that I had been long-winded. I'm glad he lived to 94. He deserved to, because he was so misunderstood.

Art went to war and he rose from copy boy by hard work. He became a respected cog in two weird organizations. And he was never appreciated. It must have hurt him when all the young studs bitched about him, often deliberately so he could hear.

But like old T.O. and its unthinking prejudices, he evolved and worked longer and harder than anyone around him, doing the donkey work, crossing the t's and dotting the i's of the flamboyant around him, and finally fading away at a newspaper that didn't resemble his birthplace of journalism at all.

"I'm sure things are better organized in Heaven now that he's there, and all the spelling mistakes in St. Peter's log have been corrected."

30 - Art Holland

Updated re Peter Worthington's farewell to Art and a TSF Memories of Art posting

Art Holland, the Toronto Sun's Day One office manager who doubled as a furniture mover to get the tabloid started, died Saturday. He was 94.

Visitation is Tuesday at 10 a.m. in the Church of the Master, 3385 Lawrence Ave. East, followed by a funeral service at 11 a.m. Reception to follow.

As noted in Jean Sonmor's The Little Paper That Grew, Art was one of the 62 out-of-work Toronto Telegram employees who launched the Toronto Sun on Nov. 1, 1971.

Art was instrumental in moving anything that wasn't tied down at the defunct Telegram to the Eclipse Building at King and John Streets in the two days after the Tely folded.

"Art Holland, the office manager, bought a few old mahogany desks and second-hand steno chairs, but almost everything else they'd 'liberated' from the Tely, except the packing boxes most were using as chairs," Jean wrote.

Art and other former Tely staffers felt a little guilty about the pilfering until they learned what they left at the Tely was tossed in the garbage before the Globe and Mail moved in.

In a farewell tribute column, Peter Worthington says:

"When the Tely folded . . . and the Sun was born . . ., Art joined us as office manager and revealed a hitherto undetected streak of larceny.

"He managed to bring masses of copy paper, pens and pencils, even a typewriter (or two or three), plus office stuff that we couldn't afford and the Tely no longer needed. His loyalties were transferred immediately."

Peter says "while others got accolades at the Sun, it was Art Holland who kept the internal workings of the paper harmonious."

The Eclipse Building, home to the Sun for four years, was also a work of Art. He and Bob McMillan, working on a limited budget, managed to rent two floors of the downtown building.

Columnist Paul Rimstead never let Art - and readers - forget that he was typing his columns while sitting on a packing crate at the Eclipse Building across from Farb's Car Wash.

To share your memories of Art Holland, e-mail TSF.

Jocko Thomas

What a treasure the Toronto Star has in 94-year-old Gwyn "Jocko" Thomas, retired since 1989 but always a phone call away for recollections of Toronto life.

While most newspapers rely on library file clippings for news of the record 1938-39 snowfall, the Star got a detailed first-person account from Jocko, who was a cub reporter at the time.

Jocko spent 60 years at the Star and 50 of those years saw him reporting from police headquarrrrters.

The Star should give Jocko a weekly column to share his experiences as a police reporter and for recollections of Toronto over the past eight decades.

The Toronto Sun has its senior writers - Peter Worthington and George Gross - but they are only in their 80s. Pups.

Mr. Lou Grant

In 1991, a dozen or so Toronto Sun employees commented on favourite Sun memories for a You Said It page in a 20th anniversary supplement.

Peter Worthington, a Sun co-founder and editor-in-chief, later noted incredulously that not one employee mentioned the day Lou Grant became senior city editor.

It was, after all, a brilliant newspaper stunt played with a straight face by the then feisty and unpredictable fun Sun.

It began 29 years ago today, Friday March 9, 1979, with a Toronto Sun Appointment business ad on Page 59:

"J. Douglas Creighton, publisher, is pleased to announce Mr. Lou Grant has accepted the position of Senior City Editor.

"Mr. Grant brings a distinguished career spanning electronic and print journalism to this newly-created editorial position.

"He comes to Toronto from the Los Angeles Tribune and has worked on many major metropolitan dailies including the Herald, the Globe, the News, the Chronicle, the Times and the Examiner.

"For seven years, he was News Director of WJM-TV in Minneapolis where his highly-acclaimed news operation captured several Teddy Awards.

"As Senior City Editor he will exercise full editorial control and will report to Managing Editor Ed Monteith."

His appointment was effectively immediately.

The Toronto Sun didn't have a Saturday paper in 1979, so the presence of Lou Grant, aka Ed Asner, in and around 333 King Street East for a full day would be milked to the hilt for the Sunday Sun.

An indelible image is outspoken lefty Ed rubbing shoulders with outspoken righty Peter at a keyboard in the newsroom. They would talk - and argue - politics throughout the day.

In a 2004 column, Peter wrote about the Lou Grant day after Sun TV columnist Bill Brioux said liberal Asner "must have felt lost" in Toronto.

Peter said far from "feeling lost" in Toronto, "Ed Asner felt at home - evidence that political differences don't necessarily intrude on friendships."

Peter told of how the stunt began when he commented the Sun needed a city editor like Lou Grant. Doug "chipped in: 'Why don't we get Lou Grant?'"

And Peter did just that, flying off to Hollywood to talk Ed into the stunt on a day of his choice while in Toronto filming a movie.

Ed put his heart into the Sun stunt. It wasn't a mere Hollywood star photo op. He spent hours in the newsroom with his shirtsleeves rolled up, argued with reporters, attended an editorial board meeting, dined with execs etc.

"We wined and dined Ed, argued about politics and had a good time," Peter wrote in 2004. "He went to the newspaper awards and the press club, where he extolled the virtues of socialism.

"The next day we ran another business ad saying we'd fired Lou Grant because he caused too much dissension with TV cameras always around."

It was a memorable day for all involved, although watching Ed get ticked as CITY-TV reporter Peter Gross pestered him for 15 minutes for the "perfect take" dampened the mood a bit.

A bonus, besides the increase in Sunday Sun circulation, were the phone calls from readers irate because an American was hired when there were Canadians qualified to do the job.

Gotta love those readers.

Twenty-nine years later, Ed is still acting and Peter is still writing. But missing from the Sun is the "Disneyworld" atmosphere that carried the tabloid through two highly successful decades.

TorSun talks

Both sides in negotiations for a second Toronto Sun editorial contract have been agreeably mute since the SONG/Sun Media talks began in January.

Brad Honywill, SONG president, told TSF today this is what he can say:

"The bargaining team of Rob Lamberti, Stan Behal, Jim Slotek,Wayne Janes and Zen Ruryk took part in two days of negotiations Wednesday and yesterday, led by SONG staff rep Howard Law. Some progress was made and we return to the bargaining table March 25."