February blahs

Long before the legislated Family Day and the need for a union, Doug Creighton realized as short as the month of February was, it was still too long to go without a special day off.

So the Sun voluntarily introduced Blah Days, giving all employees a February day off of their choice - with pay and a clear nod of appreciation for a job well done.

Some employees who had weekends off, used their Blah Days to create a long weekend. Others saved their day for a mid-week break.

That was our Sun.  That was our Doug.

Blah Days were one of the casualties, along with sabbaticals, stock offers, profit sharing etc., of Quebecor's takeover and union negotiations, but then Family Day arrived in Ontario in 2008.

Family Day isn't as flexible as Blah Days were - strictly the third Monday in February - but an extra day off in the depths of winter is an extra day off.

A Nick memory

A comment posted by Bill Bean re 30 - Nick Ibscher:

"Found this site belatedly. Often wondered how things were with Nick. We inherited a cat from him in Thunder Bay, and 'Jeff' aka 'Jethro de Bodine Bean,' became our daughter's best friend. 

"Nick, when bored between assignments at the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal, would call the local radio phone-in show, and affecting different accents, would lead the host on a merry chase through nonsensical ideas, never letting him catch on that he was being had."

Thanks for the memory, Bill.

OT: Cowboys

Cowboy Junkies fans who missed their gig on Jimmy Fallon were pissed that online videos of their recent appearance were controlled by Hula and, yep, can't be viewed in Canada.

The geo-blockers struck again - and with footage of a widely popular Canadian group.

But Cowboy Junkies haven't disappointed their fans. Their official website includes links to two songs they performed on the late-night talk show. 

Both clips can be viewed here.

But a link to the complete NBC show provided by the Cowboy Junkies doesn't work. It is geo-blocked by NBC.

Again, it is the World Wide Web, folks, not WWW-EWMII (Except When Money Is Involved).

The Story Board

The 21st century hasn't been easy on Canadian freelancers, with mass layoffs flooding the market and citizen "journalists" willing to work for free. 

The Story Board, a welcomed website launched in November, is described as a meeting place for independent journalists and media freelancers across Canada.

The Canadian Media Guild and the Canadian Writers Group launched the site with the following introduction:

"The CMG and the CWG have formed an exciting new alliance to advance the interests of freelancers who provide content to Canadian media organizations. 

"CMG is a national union representing 6,000 media workers across Canada, including hundreds of freelancers. 

"CWG is an agency that represents individual writers in contract negotiations with publishers and works to expand the writers’ client base. 

"The alliance is also backed by CWA/SCA Canada, the parent union of the Canadian Media Guild."

We know freelancers who are hurting and anything designed to help them get a square deal in a highly competitive market gets our endorsement.

It's a crime

The dramatic accident photo on Page 8 of Tuesday's Toronto Sun, snapped by award-winning photo vet Dave Thomas, took us back to the years when it would automatically have been front page material.

Back to the years when the Sun's crack team of photographers hustled with a spirit of pride to get their spot news photos on the front page.

Back to the years when front page editors knew more papers were sold with an eye-catching accident, fire or police takedown than any photo of a politician.

Reader surveys supported the argument that passive front pages don't sell papers and handed exclusive spot news photos almost daily, editors like Les Pyette, Peter Brewster, Mike Burke-Gaffney, Ed Monteith et al worked their magic.

Today's inconsistent front page editors, in most instances and for whatever reason, have lost that front page tabloid magic and because of that, photographers have no doubt lost their competitive edge. 

It appears the pols have too much say in the makeup of the Sun these days. Need we count the number of times front pages have been politically slanted or lampoonish in the past year?

We empathize with Sun photo vets who remember when fronts were theirs for the taking. 

But they'll always have the glory years to remember.

15 new siblings

Contrary to rumour, Sun Media's print family is growing - in Quebec.

The Toronto Sun Family gained more than a dozen new siblings with the recent purchase of 15 weekly community newspapers in Quebec.

A press release says the newspapers, previously owned by Les Hebdos Montérégiens, will retain their names and continue publishing.

The release also notes "Sun Media launched eight new regional publications in Québec" last year.

Meanwhile, in Ontario and Alberta . . .

It was written 3

The countdown to the Toronto Sun's 40th anniversary on Nov. 1 continues. 

So why was Toronto's first tabloid daily named the Sun? 

Ron Poulton provided the source in his 1976 book Life in a Word Factory, a 112-page history of the tabloid commissioned by co-founder Doug Creighton.  

He wrote:

The same lack of fussy deliberation was at work when the Sun was given its name. No committee was formed. No meetings were held. No polls were taken and nobody floundered around in debate.

John Bassett had denied everybody the luxury procrastination when he announced (on October 4, 1971) that the last edition of the Tely would appear October 30. The Sun group didn't have any time to ruminate about names.

The tabloid could just as easily have been called the News or the Times. Some sentimentalists even struggled briefly to hammer the word "Telegram" onto its masthead. No one took them seriously.

The matter landed in Andy Donato's lap, and he dusted off the dummy of a tabloid he had designed for Johnny Bassett in 1964. Its working title was the Sun; a name that survived when John Bassett published a newspaper called The Sunday Sun in Oakville in 1968.

When the subject came up, Don Hunt had more pressing things to think about than a name for the newspaper. He suggested only that its name be short, and he toyed briefly with the notion that some of the success of the New York Daily News might rub off if the tabloid was called the News. But he wasn't adamant, and neither was anyone else.

They didn't complain when Donato decided to call it the Sun without consulting anybody. 

NFR -Joe Wallace

The student smoke bomb at Quebecor's HQ in Montreal was just clearing the building  yesterday when TSF was told of another Sun Media loss down Niagara way.

A TSF tipster says Joe Wallace, the much-respected city editor of the Niagara Falls Review, has called in quits in favour of a job with Post Media at its Hamilton location.

"When a guy like that moves on - wow," says the tipster. "He was/is a rock - a good solid guy who has done that job for years. He is from Niagara Falls and knows/knew everything going on.

"With the losses mounting, it seems just a matter of time of amalgamation of the three dailies’ news rooms."

The merging of the Niagara Falls Review (1879), St. Catharines Standard  (1891) and Welland Tribune (1887) does seem inevitable, with the siphoning of manpower and assets.

That's a whole lotta newspaper history just waiting to be crunched to improve the bottom line.

Quebecor did it in 2009 with the Corbourg Daily Star (1831), Port Hope Evening Guide (1878) and Colborne Chronicle  (1959) from the ashes of the Colborne Express (1866) and Colborne Enterprise (1886).

Today's three-in-one paper is called Northumberland Today and it is filled with a lot of recycled not-so-local QMI content and shopping flyers.

The Daily What?

An international quest to find the world's weirdest newspaper names has added the Kingston Whig-Standard and the Casket to the list.

There are seven Canadian newspapers listed in a Guardian story, but Sun Media's Whig-Standard and the Casket in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, where retired Toronto Sun crime writer Max Haines got his start, caught our eye. 

Other names listed include the Unterrified Democrat in Linn, Missouri; the Youngstown Vindicator in Ohio; Carlisle Mosquito in Massachusetts and the Sacramento Bee in California.

Pain & gain

Sandra Lonar didn't fare well at the Toronto Sun, where she was laid off, and at the Financial Post, where she was laid off three months later.

But from the pain, there was gain - her husband of 11 years, Tony Luccisano.

Sandra tells TSF:

"Hi there - great blog - I just found it and am wasting much time reading it, lol.

"This page caught my eye. My husband worked at the Financial Post, first as a conference planner and then in circulation.

"I worked at the Sun (for Paul Godfrey), but was downsized in the second wave.  I was offered a position in the Post’s circulation department and took it.

"Despite being downsized from that job three months later, I have good memories of the department because I met Tony there. Still together and married now for over 11 years."

Now that is what you call a 333 bonus.

Thanks for the update, Sandra.