Changing news

Recommended reading today is the first article of a five-part series by Nick Fillmore (see his impressive media credentials below) focusing on the need for more independent media in Canada. Print, broadcast and Internet-based.

The rabble.ca intro reads:

Editor's Note: This is the first of a five-part series that will address the need to develop independent media - print, broadcast and Internet-based - in Canada. All five articles will appear on rabble.ca. This first article explores the reasons why traditional media or corporate media - that is, corporate-owned newspapers, TV, and radio - no longer provide reliable news and information to the Canadian public. The next article, to appear on December 15, will look at how for-profit corporate media have filtered and censored the news for decades.

Is your community poorly served by the traditional media? Would you like to become involved in a group to see if an independent media project could be launched? It is hoped that this series of articles will encourage public-minded groups to set up new media projects in their city, town, or region. Interested groups and individuals are invited to send us their comments on the series along with any ideas on how to establish independent media projects. Send your comments to editor@rabble.ca and fillmore0274@rogers.com

End of intro.

About the author:

Mr. Fillmore, formerly was an editor and producer with the CBC for 18 years, which included the position of Canadian Desk Editor at The National TV News, and head of an investigative journalism unit at CBC Radio’s Sunday Morning program. He’s a former member of the THIS Magazine Editorial Board, a regular contributor to The Globe and Mail from the Maritimes, and a former staff member with Reuters in London. Nick is a founding member of the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE). He’s now a freelance journalist and media fundraiser based in Toronto. He can be reached at: fillmore0274@rogers.com

PKP fired Santa

Link to blog updated

PKP once fired Santa Claus.

That's the inside scoop from former Toronto Sun editor John Downing in his latest Downing's Views blog titled "I Got Fired as Santa."

Downing recalls how, at six feet tall, weighing 300 pounds and bearded, he was often called upon to be Santa, including appearances at Toronto Sun Christmas gatherings. the Ex etc.

His Santa adventures, including how PKP came to fire him as Santa in a ride up the elevator at 333 soon after buying Sun Media, are a hoot.

Downing, a Day Oner who not so affectionately calls PKP Pete, also recalls eventful and sometimes painful Santa sessions at the Ex and other gigs.

Merry Christmas Santa.

Peterborough penis

Editors at the Peterborough Examiner overlooked one minor detail in a staff photo before it was published today.

A high school student's very visible penis on a hot tub float during a Santa Claus parade.

"They've pulled all issues from the newsstand, but will surely be hearing from the kid's family," says a TSF tipster. "Not enough staff on the desk up there?"

Another tipster writes:

"Another result of the hacking and slashing by PKP in newsrooms . . . The photog had no idea and the reduced number of editors working the weekend unfortunately missed it."

The same photo was picked up by Canadian Press and used by Metro, with the name of the student in the cutline.

http://www.blogto.com/upload/2009/12/20091207_metroholidaysplashED.jpg

Penisgate?

Or, as Torontoist headlines it: Peterborough Peter.

http://torontoist.com/2009/12/hangin_out_at_st_peters.php

"Today's Metro contains something of a cock-up," says one of those very clever Torontoist staffers.

Star cuts

At least three Toronto Star employees with Toronto Sun history have decided to take buyouts or are expecting to be downsized.

"Kathy Vey, Deborah Read and Margaret Bream will be gone," says a TSF tipster.

More to come?

Stay tuned.

Star's D-Day

If the Toronto Star is on schedule, today's the day employees will be told how many staffers have taken buyouts and how many will be laid off, if any.

Management announced in November the newspaper was required to chop 100 jobs, through voluntary buyouts and layoffs if needed.

A staff memo said the broad reworking of the paper "will affect every job in every corner of the organization."

Hopefully, Sun staffers who have fled to 1 Yonge Street over the years ducked and covered. If not, we're asking tipsters to name casualties.

TorSun split

It seems the grand plan of having all Toronto Sun employees share second floor leased space at 333 won't work as planned.

A TSF tipster says employees were told today by e-mail not all employees can be accommodated, so some will have to move to a new building on Yonge Street near the 401.

The tipster says it sounds like "editorial, CSO and some IT along with Canoe will remain at 333."

Circulation, corporate IT and all others who won't fit on the second floor are moving to the Yonge St location, says the tipster.

The downsizing of what was once six floors of Toronto Sun activity to renters scrambling for elbow room is beyond pathetic.

Especially at Christmas time, for those with fond memories of 333 in its prime, when Christmas brought office parties, a hefty Christmas bonus and sincere good cheer, not downsizing and pink slips.

The selling of Sun Media buildings, presses and anything else of value, including the expertise of once valued veteran employees, would make Wall Street's fictional Gordon Gekko proud.

From cash cow pickings to a carcass in 10 short years.

As one saddened vet recently told TSF: "It's over."

Presses to Peru

Ship the presses!

Sun Media presses no longer in use at its newspapers have been sold to a group in Peru, says a Niagara Falls Review story.

Presses from the Review, the Welland Tribune and Sarnia Observer are included in the group sale, says the story by Ray Spiteri.

"We're now getting printed in Toronto and we had this structure, obviously, that we no longer needed," says Review publisher Dave Martineau. "They'll be reassembled and used as newspaper printing presses in Peru."

Martineau notes the paper's seven-unit Urbanite presses were installed in 1979 and only two years ago there were plans to add two units to the presses.

As a TSF tipster noted the other day, fewer printing presses in Ontario, fewer opportunities for start-up community weeklies and dailies to compete against Quebecor Media.

OT: NY Post

Taking liberties with a stock photo of Tiger Woods and his wife left a TSF reader wondering: "Is this for real?"

The New York tabloid crosses the line into supermarket tabloid territory with this photo of a well-bandaged Woods.

Loose, very loose.

Hazard pay?

Toronto Star photographer Steve Russell took one for the photog team Monday night at the ACC when a fluke puck off of a goalie's stick hit him in the face.

Buffalo's Ryan Miller, who took time to check on Russell immediately after the shot, gave the photog his stick when the 3-0 shutout game against the Leafs ended.

Jobs update

During our search for a Help Wanted ad for a Peterborough Examiner reporter, as mentioned by a TSF tipster, we discovered our job hunt links were woefully outdated.

The page has been updated and several obsolete links deleted, leaving the following active sites for job hunters to scan daily:

Canadian Press;

CEP/Southern Ontario Newsmedia Guild;

CTVglobemedia; Jeff Gaulin's Job Board;

JournalismJobs.com;

Masthead Online;

Media Job Search Canada;

Metroland Publishing;

Osprey Media;

Sun Media.

While we couldn't find the Peterborough posting, we did notice the Sudbury Star is looking for a news editor; Canwest is looking for a national crime and punishment writer; the Globe and Mail is looking for a web developer; Toronto Community Press needs an editor in chief; Metroland needs a reporter in the Ottawa area etc.

The Guelph Mercury has next summer in mind with an ad for a summer 2010 reporter-photographer intern, a paying job.

Meanwhile, the Red Deer Advocate in Alberta is looking for two "temporary" reporters.

"Position #1 is a five-month full-time position from Jan. 4 to May 31, 2010. Position #2 is a three-month position from April 1 to June 30, 2010."

Is that what Canadian journalism is coming to - temp jobs?

Good luck in the hunt. A new decade is coming.