Columnist clout

Recommended reading this weekend is Richard Roeper's Chicago Sun-Times column today marking his 20 eventful years as a daily newspaper columnist.

Roeper talks about the clout of big city daily columnists in the glory years of print media and the many doors opened for men and women with columns.

He writes:

"I'm still writing four columns a week for the Chicago Sun-Times, every Monday through Thursday on Page 11, which has been my home for two decades. That's roughly 4,000 columns. When I started writing books and doing TV, a lot of people in the business expressed surprise that I'd keep the column. To which I'd respond, why wouldn't I?

"As I celebrate my 20th year as a daily newspaper columnist, I cherish each and every day."

We're sure the Toronto Sun's Peter Worthington, Mark Bonokoski, Mike Strobel, Michele Mandel et al feel the same way.

More changes

Words from our TSF tipsters:

Tip 1: The "centre of excellence" in Woodstock will apparently begin laying out the Belleville Intelligencer this weekend.

Tip 2: Effective Monday, Apr. 6, there will be a reduction of four pages from the Peterborough Examiner's Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday editions. No word on possible layoffs.

Tip 3: A Quebecor Media memo to publishers: You'll need to drop Canwest News services. We will use internal content Sun Media, (QMI Agency).

Tip 4: The centralized hub in Woodstock will cost the Simcoe Reformer another body.

30 - TorSun ME?

Insiders say the Toronto Sun will not name a new managing editor, allowing a traditional, vital newsroom management position to fade to black.

If accurate, the late, great Ed Monteith, a veteran Sun managing editor considered the rock of the newsroom from Day One, is rolling in his grave.

As is Doug Creighton, his longtime friend and Tely/Sun colleague, former Tely managing editor and founding publisher of the Sun.

For the uninitiated, a managing editor is a senior member of the newsroom team, most often second in command to the editor-in-chief.

We are beginning to understand why Michael Burke-Gaffney, who retired as managing editor on Tuesday after 29 years in the Sun newsroom, called it quits at 59.

Just about all of the editors and management that took the tabloid to competitive heights in the 1970s, '80s and early '90s have vacated the building.

The added workload, shared by those who remain, has created a sweatshop environment with penny-pinching cutbacks that push Canadian journalism back into the dark ages.

Who's next at the profitable Toronto Sun? Lou Clancy and his editor-in-chief position? Rob Granatstein and his editor position? James Wallace and his deputy editor position? Lorrie Goldstein and his associate editor position?

With outsourcing and pockets of people at "centres of excellence" across the province, all positions in PKP's cookie cutter newspapers are dispensable.

Donato returns

Welcome back Andy Donato, your Sunday's only editorial cartoon during a three-month winter retreat in Georgia left us with withdrawal symptoms.

As of yesterday, Sun Media readers can look forward to Donato and his Bird five days a week through the remainder of the year. You can never get enough of a good thing.

To us, a Donato cartoon is one of the few remaining reasons to buy the Sun daily. Forty years of editorial cartoons for the Tely and the Sun and he's still hitting them out of the ballpark.

Or, for golfers in the crowd, he continues to hit holes-in-one.

Devall & MBG

Toronto Sun TV writer Bill Harris gives CTV's exiting veteran weatherman Dave Devall a half-page sendoff on Page 52 today.

But, once again, not a word elsewhere about the departure of Michael Burke-Gaffney after 29 productive years in the Toronto Sun newsroom.

Mike retired Tuesday. His name was removed from the editorial page masthead Wednesday and a replacement hasn't been named.

But hey, maybe the Sun is preparing an Are YOU Our Next Managing Editor? promotion.

Days of Nick 2

An anonymous insider re the "sonofaswish" Toronto Sun file mentioned in the previous posting:

"The file containing all the hilarious bad copy was called 'swish' and when management decreed that copy editors had to remove it from the system (too many sensitive reporters were upset with it; they thought they were being made fun of), it went underground and was reborn sonofaswish.

"Not really sure why the original was called swish other than to surmise that that is the term used when a basketball goes through the basket touching nothing but net. Poor copy would work its way through the system in a similar manner. I guess."

TSF would have a field day with the "sonofaswish" file. Wonder if any of our GA work made the file.

One of our favourites that got past the editors involved a man who was "electrocuted" recovering nicely in hospital.

Outsourcing 101

Having endured numerous frustrating sessions with Bell's tech help employees in India, we are not big fans of outsourcing.

Outsourcing to cut costs might be saving Bell big bucks, but it is pissing off its paying customers in increasing numbers.

Shifting the packaging of Canadian community newspapers to India to save money makes less sense than outsourcing Bell service calls.

But it has arrived in North America.

A TSF reader says:

"Indian media companies have been packaging papers for foreign publishers for a few years, and have recently attracted attention by moving into the North American market.

"This one (Mindworks Global Media Services) does pagination for the Orange County Register (in California), among others. They always seem to be hiring."

Mindworks, based in New Delhi and launched in 2004, says in its backgrounder: "Our clients create content; we create and manage efficient processes to package it."

And in its service blurb:

Our services include:
• Copy editing and improvement
• Fact validation
• Grammar and punctuation checks
• Copy fitting
• Style alignment
• Headlines, decks, infographics and other visual elements
• Overall proofreading

"Very often, we provide copy editing, design and production services in conjunction. For example, we do copy editing, design, layout, pagination and pre-press processing for many newspaper and magazine clients."

Having people thousands of miles from your community editing and proofreading North American newspaper content is foreign to us and demeaning to newspaper people losing their jobs to outsourcing.

Will the folks in New Delhi be educated in various Canadian newspaper styles, say the Canadian Press style book and the Sun Media style guide? Will they know the nuances of offbeat columnists, such as Mike Strobel? The spelling of street names?

Absentee editors?

Just say no.

Intell class

This is how you say farewell to colleagues who become Sun Media layoff casualties:

From the leaner, redesigned Belleville Intelligencer:

Absent friends not forgotten

Posted By Bill Glisky
Updated 11 hours ago

As has been reported in other media and recently noted by a letter writer on these pages, these are not the happiest of days around The Intelligencer newsroom.

We, like too many other industries in these tough economic times, have had to cut staff. The cuts have not been easy; in many ways they have, in fact been extremely painful.

We are, by many standards, a fairly small operation here in the newsroom, one too-often filled with high stress and high intensity as we deal with deadlines and much too often the pressure of delving into people's lives on the worst days of their lives.

All of which naturally brings us close. So when one of us leaves, we lose not just a coworker, but a part of our working family.

In the last week or so, we have had to say good-bye to three members of that family.

Henry Bury, Barry Ellsworth and Ron Hiuser, individually and together, embodied much of what is best about small city journalism generally and The Intelligencer in particular.

Bury had been a stalwart of The Intell pages since 1976 and if you have been involved in any charitable group or event or run a business of any kind in this area in the last 30 years, odds are you have seen Henry around at some point or another.

While some reporters live for the thrill of the "big" story or the sensational tale, Bury cared about all his stories the same, from the smallest fundraiser to the biggest business success.

As one of my colleagues noted Monday, "The newsroom seems so weird without Henry here."

Amen to that.

The same can be said about Barry Ellsworth. If you have any interest in health care you have read Barry's expert coverage of all issues health related, and if you are interest in your neighbourhood you have likely read his interviews with local people run in the Saturday paper under the catchline Neighbours.

Whether listening to someone's life story or chasing down what people need to know about their public health system, Ellsworth was a "pro's pro": careful with the facts and dogged in the pursuit of them, he was also respectful, kind and decent to everyone whose path he crossed.

Ron Hiuser wore many hats in his 32 plus years at The Intell, most recently handling our Life pages, Comment pages and all our extra Saturday pages.

In the process he dealt with many of our columnists and those who share their stories with us in many ways. If you had an event coming up or wanted to share with people one that had already happened, you likely have communicated with Ron.

While Hiuser's name rarely in recent years appeared on the front page, or anywhere else, he helped make it possible for us to put out newspapers every day.

While others among us shared the spotlight, Ron did the things that enable that light to shine more brightly for all our readers.

In the end, all three men left before their time in order to allow younger people to stay for more of their own time. It was an act of graciousness, decency and unselfishness that was entirely in character for all of them.

True professionals, true gentlemen, we will miss them all. We were unquestionably better with them here than we will be without them.

End of posting.

Intell letter

A published Belleville Intelligencer letter to the editor:

Layoffs should be reported

It seems that The Intelligencer routinely reports any layoffs from businesses in your readership area on a regular basis.

One question: How come your paper has not mentioned a word about the layoffs in this area, regarding Quebecor-controlled media outlets? Also, you've mentioned nothing about closing of buildings, i. e. Community Press, etc.

It is my understanding these layoffs are not one offs but substantial. Is this an oversight on your paper's part or selective journalism? Just how many people have you/are you laying off?

Steve Shadbolt, Belleville

Plus a column bv Intelligencer columnist Chris Malette from five days ago reacting to feedback about changes at the newspaper.

CalSun's joke

Updated re Edmonton and others
Calgary's AM770 did a roundup of April Fool's jokes in the city and says:

"The Calgary Sun had fun with a story suggesting a DNA database could track unscooped dog doo. The story adds dog owners would be required to provide a sample of their dog's droppings when applying for their annual license."

The Edmonton Sun went with the same story.

Montreal's fagstein.com went with a dandy: Gazette sold to Sun Media.

The Canadian Journalism Project went with: Sun acquires Globe

Any April Fool's levity in other Sun Media newspapers?

Let us know.