Romanelli out

TSF sources say Jack Romanelli was pink-slipped at the Toronto Sun today.

No further details were available, but in May 2008 it was rumoured Romanelli was brought into the Sun newsroom at the expense of two highly praised veterans, Tim Fryer and Darren "Woody" McGee.

Fryer and McGee were shown the door before Romanelli entered the building. Management described him as a newsroom manager, but his name was rarely mentioned by TSF tipsters.

(Fryer and McGee were quickly picked up by the Toronto Star. McGee recently moved on to the National Post sports department.)

Romanelli's previous print media stays were at the Montreal Gazette, Cornwall Standard-Freeholder and the defunct Halifax Daily News.

TSF won't be posting a couple of anonymous comments sent to us today. Suffice to say, the contributors sense Romanelli will not be missed in the newsroom.

More weekly spin

Sun Media's Sherwood Park-Strathcona County News in Alberta made the switch to the chain-wide cloned format yesterday.

Also new for the new year is a new editor, Ryan Frankson. The weekly's front page story reads, in part:

A brand new year means a brand new look for the Sherwood Park-Strathcona County News, as the publication adopts a new Sun Media-wide format for community papers.

Recent surveys completed by the company found that the design of a newspaper has a major impact on reader enjoyment. Guided by feedback obtained from readers, design changes were implemented for all Sun Media community papers, which has started today for the News.

The changes will provide readers with a more modern look, improved organization and easier readability.

"We are pleased to be implementing these design changes within the News," said Derek Pyne, group publisher of the Edmonton area for Sun Media and publisher of the News. "We are confident that our new design will be met with a positive reaction in our community."

NCIS logic

If you missed Tuesday night's NCIS, you missed a superb, subtle plug for print media.

It comes just after the credits, during an NCIS staff discussion about the Internet, with all of its pop-up ads, banner ads and other obstructions.

During the banter, Tony says he found something online and will send Ziva a link.

"No more links," says Ziva. "I have spent my entire morning sifting through all of this nonsense looking for something that matters. How hard is it for someone to tell me the news and bring it to me?

"There must be a better way," says Tony.

A split second later, Gibbs arrives and slaps down a newspaper.

Priceless.

Hear, hear Tina

First, a hasty link to Tina Brown's Things to Stop Bitching About in 2010 posting over at the The Daily Beast - link.

As she writes: "At least the Internet links to the things it steals."

But we digress.

The founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast says one of the things we should stop bitching about is: Newspapers are dying because of the Internet. Investigative journalism is finished!

Says she:

What a load of Spam! American newspapers are dying mostly because they were so dull for so long a whole generation gave up on them. They needed to innovate back in the Fax Age of the 1980s but were too self-important and making too much money with their monopolies to acknowledge it.

In the U.K., there is a banquet of glorious newspapers to feast on in the morning despite the presence of the Internet. All of these papers look nothing like they did 15 years ago. Furrow-browed broadsheets like The Times of London and The Guardian got snappy new overhauls, cut down to a more modern-feeling tabloid size, with a use of pictures and color that's imaginative and striking and appealing to the younger demographic.

These "serious" papers are replete with sexy culture coverage and hip fashion stories as well as foreign reporting and brainiac columnists that make them a guilty pleasure to read.

It's one of the biggest fibs going that American newspapers are now being forced to give up their commitment to investigative reporting. Most of them gave up long ago as their greedy managements squeezed every cent out of the bottom line and turned their newsrooms into eunuchs.

As for the Internet thieving the bona fide news reporters' hard-worked stories, "Back at ya!" is all I can say. Online writers for years have had their stories ripped off by newspapers with no credit. At least the Internet links to the things it steals.

Whatever his views on this issue, by the way, Rupert Murdoch has greatly improved The Wall Street Journal. Leave it to an Aussie to give American journalism a swift kick in its down under.

New Barrie pub

The Barrie Examiner has a new publisher/general manager.

An Examiner story says David Zilstra, a 45-year-old Whitby native with 20 years of newspaper experience, introduced himself to staff on Monday.

"I'm one of those soldiers you can always count on," says Zilstra. "I have a commitment to the papers I manage, and I bring 20 years of experience here with me."

The paper says Zilstra got his media start in 1989 as a Napanee Guide sales rep and spent 16 years there, becoming advertising manager in 1993 and general manager in 1998. In 2005, he began managing four Algonquin Group papers - the Haliburton County Echo, Minden Times, Bancroft This Week and Barry's Bay This Week.

TorSun presses

The long-silenced Goss presses at the Toronto Sun are being dismantled this week, ending a 35-year presence at 333 King Street East.

Pardon oldtimers who lament the passing of an era when a bustling newsroom had ample staff, late night deadlines and full control of the presses for early morning replates.

We tear up these days as the newspaper we knew and loved is dismantled piece by piece, department by department.

A morning newspaper with all of the late-night sports scores, evening concert reviews, late-night local, national and international breaking news? Those were the days, my friends.

In the summer of 1975, the Sun's very own presses within the walls of a new three-storey building said it all for the rising of the tabloid.

The Sun wasn't yet four years old when it moved from the rented Eclipse Building space down the road. On-site presses at the then independent Toronto Sun represented success.

Employees and readers were eager to tour the new digs and viewing the presses that would lift the feisty tabloid to new heights was always a highlight.

Quebecor's new plant in Islington killed the nightly roar of the presses at 333 in 2008 and the dedicated pressmen who made them hum flawlessly for decades were shown the door.

TSF doesn't know the fate of the faithful presses at 333, but presses removed from other Sun Media newspapers have been shipped to Peru, far from the hands of any potential Sun Media competitors.

The Toronto Sun is now a shoulder-to-shoulder, second-floor tenant in the building, recently sold to an unidentified buyer for an undisclosed price.

PKP's late father was laughed out of 333 when he attempted to buy into the Sun in the 1970s.

Dammit, Rimmer, maybe Sun execs shouldn't have laughed.

Fairview spin

The positive spin of Sun Media management in the face of the dictated "weekly sameness" we have been talking about is admirable.

Take a read of how the Fairview Post, a weekly in Alberta, explains to readers changes to be made to the paper next Tuesday. TSF has highlighted a few comments in bold.

It reads:

In the more than 60 years the Fairview Post has been serving the Fairview area and surrounding communities, the paper has undergone a number of style and format changes and next week the evolution of the Post will take one more step forward.

The Jan. 12 edition of the Fairview Post will have a new look and new size. Post publisher Scott Fitzpatrick said that a number of readers have suggested that the Fairview Post change to a smaller, easier to read tabloid format, much like the Peace Country Sun, and given the cost of paper and printing these days the new smaller sized Fairview Post will be beneficial for everyone.

In addition to the smaller format the Fairview Post, a Sun Media publication, will be taking on a whole new look similar to other Sun Media publications. It's to keep a more uniform look along with its sister publications, Fitzpatrick pointed out.

He noted that the front page, the sports page and editorial page will have a new fresher look, but the paper itself will still cater to local news and issues that affect the area and its residents.

"If you can read about it in the Edmonton Sun or New York Times, I don't want it in the Fairview Post. We are a local newspaper and will continue to provide local coverage of people, politics, and issues concerning our home towns and the things that we need to be aware of," he said.

He also noted that subscription prices will remain the same, and that the new smaller pages will help advertisers in that their ads will now have more page dominance as there will be fewer ads on the page.

"Even though the paper size will change, we are still in the business of recording Fairview and area's history one week at a time."

End of story.

Let us know how keeping external Sun Media/QMI content out of the Fairview Post works out for you this year.

PKP 7M 08

PKP pocketed $7 million in 2008 as the head of Quebecor, putting him on the Top 100 list of highest paid Canadian CEOs, says a Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives report released today.

"The total average compensation for Canada's 100 highest paid CEOs was $7,352,895 in 2008 - a stark contrast from the total average Canadian income of $42,305," says Hugh Mackenzie, the report's author. "They pocketed what takes Canadians earning an average income an entire year to make by 1:01 pm January 4 - the first working day of the year.

"During the worst of economic years, the average earnings of Canada’s highest paid 100 CEOs were 174 times greater than Canadians earning an average income."

Mackenzie's report places PKP at 35th, with a salary of $1.2 million, $5,769,562 in options and $15,900 pension.

Thomas Glocer at Thomson Reuters Corp. tops the list at $36.5 million. Robert S Pritchard at Torstar Corp. is 84th at $4.1 million.

Media employees in the trenches can learn how long it takes corporate CEOs to earn their annual salaries with CCPA's Salary Calculator.

If your annual salary is $75,000, the calculator says by 2:17:51 p.m. tomorrow, the average of the top 100 Canadian CEOs has already earned your salary of $75,000 for the entire year.

Tough economic times, indeed.

Odds & ends

Geoff Nixon, a CTV.ca News staffer, kicks off 2010 with a review of the newspaper business in North America and the ongoing woes of print media. Former Toronto Sun vet Ian Harvey, laid off in 2001, was interviewed by Nixon for the story, a recommended read.

The Toronto Sun has changed the status of James Wallace from deputy editor to "interim editor-in-chief." The Sun has been without an editor-in-chief since Lou Clancy left in November. Having a deputy editor without an editor never made sense.

Did you notice the Jay Leno Headlines candidate in the Toronto Sun for two consecutive days? In a Boxing Day Bash ad for Select Furniture: "Microfibre Recliner Chairs, $249. Reg $249." A steal.

The hunter who killed Minnie the pet deer up Madoc way in December was fined $2,000 and had his hunting licence suspended for a year. Minnie's death was the subject of a Mark Bonokoski column, but the Northumberland Today court story did not mention the dead deer was Minnie.

Patrons of the Roof Lounge at the Park Hyatt Toronto not only have a panoramic view of the city, they can also view "a collection of Andy Donato sketches featuring famous Canadian literati, including Mordechai Richler and Margaret Atwood," on the walls.

Sun Media's Welland Tribune, hard hit by layoffs and cutbacks, was hit again on the weekend - by a thief. An undisclosed amount of cash was taken overnight from a main floor vault at the Tribune's Main Street office. Also missing: a quantity of cheques and Seaway Mall gift certificates.

Re Michelle Lang

Recommended reading today is Peter Worthington's column on the death of Calgary Herald reporter Michelle Lang in an Afghanistan bombing.

The column heading reads: There's a death in the family.

Worthington, a WW2 and Korean War vet, writes: "I did not know Michelle Lang - but in a way, all of us in the news business knew her.

"We feel we have lost one of our own, just as soldiers feel they've lost a comrade when someone they didn't know from another regiment is killed in action."

The Committee to Protect Journalists says Lang was the 20th journalist killed in Afghanistan since 1992 and 141 have been killed in Iraq since 1992.

Lang, the first Canadian reporter to be killed in Afghanistan, was one of 70 journalists killed worldwide in 2009, says CPJ.

And print media journalists killed worldwide top the 1992-2009 casualty list: Print, 57%; Radio, 27%; Television, 20%; Internet, 1%.

Lang's death, at 34 and in her prime, personalizes all of the stats for Canadian journalists.

As the heading for Worthington's column says, there has been a death in the family.