News blues

It is 8:45 p.m., the big news on the radio is a woman has been arrested in the bizarre death of a man shot and thrown from a car on Hwy. 401.

But the lead news story on torontosun.com is the bus stop murder that occurred Monday at 3 p.m. and last updated at 10:27 a.m. Tuesday. Are they fixated on that story?

The 401 body dumping is the lead "Breaking News" story on the "Home" page and the "Toronto & GTA" news page, but no mention of an arrest and the last update was 6:18 p.m.

Why is the Hwy. 401 murder the lead story on the "Home" page and "Toronto & GTA" news page, but not the main "News" page? It is confusing.

When you click on the "News" page, it would make more sense to begin with "Canada" on the left and leave it to the visitor to choose "Toronto & GTA."

The way it is now, it looks like there is one too many news link pages.

We gave the new site an A+ (mostly for design and navigation) early today, but if slow news updates on busy news days, as we are witnessing out of the gate, continue a B- would be more realistic.

It might be cheery and easy to use, but news as it happens is the name of the game.

Web site A+

Updated 2.51 p.m.
Wow, the torontosun.com layout whiz kids got it 99% right this time.

The new web site launched Monday is an impressive transformation, from a cluttered and claustrophobic torontosun.com to a web site that shines like the good Sun should.

Lots of Sun red, lots of white background, a breeze to navigate and organized and categorized to the hilt. Surfing the new site is fast and inviting.

But . . .

The text font needs to be nudged up a point for easier reading.

And at 4:10 a.m. Tuesday, the lead news story, accompanied by a photo, hadn't changed since 6:38 p.m. Monday. The 3 p.m. Toronto bus stop slaying was old news at 4 a.m. - and why was it a Canadian Press story and not a Sun story? What's that all about?

(At 2:51 p.m., almost a full day later, the lead news story was still "Shot dead at bus stop" but it is now a Sun Media story, not CP. Gotta move along with news as it happens folks if you want to compete with radio and television news.)

The next three stories at 2:51 were all about the PM.

Also, isn't this awkward: "Last Updated: 8th September 2008, 6:38pm?"

Couldn't it be simplified to "Last Updated: Sept. 8, 2008, 6:38 p.m.?

Or do what Goggle news does: posted 30 minutes ago, 1 hour ago, 11 hours ago.

But it's only day one.

Meanwhile, the Your Scoop page invites readers to submit pictures, video and recordings and includes the following agreement wording:

"I hereby confirm to Canoe Inc. that I am the owner of all rights in the picture(s), videos or recordings (the "Material") that I am sending to Canoe and I am granting Canoe and its affiliated companies, a worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free and non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, distribute, transmit, broadcast and publish that Material for any purposes, on any material form and in perpetuity. I attest that the Material is an original work and is authentic and that the shooting of this Material did not infringe any law or regulation."

No mention of Sun Media paying for said pictures, videos and recordings, so it is possible a citizen journalist with a major "scoop" will be surrendering all rights to his work for free.

That just doesn't seem right, for Sun Media or any other media outlet.

If a picture is worth a thousand words - pay for it.

Downing's post

Toronto dodged the bullet when it lost the 2008 Summer Olympics to China, says John Downing in his latest blog entry.

"There will always be grandiose promises of the benefits, of the world attention, all the money flooding in," he writes. "Ad nauseum, and mostly BS! You must never forget the hangover."

That's our Downing. The Day Oner never minced words during his decades as a Toronto Sun political columnist and after reading this posting, you'll be thankful we all watched the Olympics from afar.

What a grand venue blogs are in this 21st century arena. Voices like Downing's should never fade away for lack of an audience.

The late Doug MacFarlane, who was retired by the Sun before his time, would have relished access to a vast new audience keen on learning from a mentor with credentials this high.

Les Pyette, who worked his way up the Toronto Sun ladder from city editor to CEO, should be blogging, but he has opted for a book.

Hartley Steward is another Sun Media vet we'd like to hear from again on a blog.

And where's Wilder Penfield III when you need him?

If you were born to write, write on in blogland. It's not a paying gig (unless there are some willing sponsors out there, hint, hint) but it is therapeutic.

But back to John Downing, a man who knows Toronto inside out. It is comforting to know he's out there and at the keyboard when he has something to say.

Style guide 2

Joan Sutton Straus, a Day Oner and former Toronto Sun Lifestyle editor/columnist, tells TSF the new style guide reminds her of Ed Monteith, the late managing editor.

"The style guide reminds me of my feud with Eddie Monteith," she writes. "He would not allow the word 'crotch' in my column . . . nor could I use the word 'penis' as in penis envy in a story I did about the cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead - in a paper that frequently referred to breasts as boobs!

"I sent Eddie a very large prickly cactus, which he kept in his office for a very long time."

Speaking of the new style guide, a memo to the Toronto Sun display ad department:

Sun Media's new Word Usage and Style Guide reads: "Dates: Use figures without letters; April 1, not April 1st; May 3, not May 3rd. When a month is used with a specific date, use the abbreviation (Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec.)"

So it is Monday, Sept. 8, not Monday, September 8th as used in numerous ads promoting the launching of the new torontosun.com web site, or are there separate style guidelines for ad writers?

Just searching for consistency . . .

And speaking of the launch of the new web site, Steve Tilley has us pumped after reading his Sunday Sun preview.

TSF welcomes comments about the new look.

TV guides

The Sunday Sun dropped the ball big time when it pulled the plug on the weekend television guide for all but those in "selected areas."

Not only did thousands of Sunday Sun readers lose out on a weekly television guide, they have to do without television listings for Sunday, as is provided Monday through Saturday.

The Toronto Star is not about to abandon fans of Starweek, the glossy Saturday Star guide that was beginning to look anemic last year but is gaining weight.

Starweek editor Gord Stimmell has been given two more pages to work with, up to 38 from 36, TV critic Bill Brioux is appearing more often, full page ads have returned, there are more features etc.

Of course, Gord and Bill are former Toronto Sun vets lost during Quebecor's ravaging of the tab. Gord put out the Sunday Sun guide for a couple of decades before shown the door.

Times have changed for weekend print media television guides. Sun Television in its prime was 80-plus pages crammed with ads and editorial content. But the need remains.

Unfortunately, thousands of Sunday Sun readers are left with only memories of a handy weekly TV guide.

It is encouraging to see Starweek reverse the thinning trend, add a couple of pages, beef up the editorial content, draw full page ads for The Love Guru DVD, Workopolis etc.

The excellent Friday Globe and Mail movie/TV section and the improved Saturday Star guide are no doubt picking up disgruntled former Sunday Sun readers.

As for the Sunday Sun, it owes its readers Sunday TV listings.

Sun style guide

It took almost 37 years, but the Toronto Sun and all of its subsequent sister newspapers now have an official Sun Media style guide.

The Word Usage and Style Guide, Version 1 was unveiled this week online in PDF format and it opens with "Basic Rules and things to avoid."

There is also a chapter on use of profanity.

For most of the early years, the Toronto Sun newsroom loosely followed the Canadian Press style book, opting to ignore it occasionally to suit its tabloid nature.

(The CP style book has provided generations of journalists with a consistency that print media need for employees and readers.)

The Sun also took "tight and bright" to extremes, shortening Peterborough to Peterboro and dropping the "u" in "ou" words until irate readers voiced their opinion about Americanizing our language.

A Sun style guide is warranted, but there are questions to be asked.

Who compiled the guide? It doesn't say, but a TSF reader says the managing editor in Calgary was involved.

And the "ages" style is not 100% clear:

"Ages: always use as figures after the name; otherwise write out one to nine."

So it is Mike, 1, and one-year-old Mike, not 1-year-old Mike as some reporters have been using in the past year?

Also on ages:

"Use hyphens in a compound modifier; eg. an 84-year-old showgirl. Also correct would be the 84-year-old. But it is 84 years old. No apostrophe for plurals; eg. the woman is in her 30s. A girl becomes a woman at age 18; a boy becomes a youth at 16 and a man at 18."

Other style notes of interest:

"Feminine forms of words: Generally we don’t use them. Poetess, authoress, actress, murderess, traitoress etc. are banned."

Bravo. Actress instead of actor has been banished elsewhere for years.

"Pass away: people in news stories die, they don’t pass away."

More applause and cc that one to the broadcast media.

On a Sensitivity 101 note:

"Tabloid is a format but more commonly a negative term for sensational publications. Always use supermarket weeklies to distance us from National Enquirer et al."

More applause for "Unique: One of a kind. Something can not be very unique, more unique or somewhat unique."

Meanwhile, the late George Carlin would be smiling and performing a new routine with material from the guide's chapter on profanity.

"Balls" to describe testicles is out, but someone "has balls" is OK.

There are also seven words "not to be used or abbreviated in any way." Use your imagination for those seven words, well, eight if you count Jesus Christ (when used as profanity) as two words.

Also on that list are goddamn and tits.

BTW: How would you abbreviate tits? Our favourite juvenile way to get around using the word is (.) (.)

The style guide allows abbreviations for four curse words "only to be used when important to the story. " They are b------- ; f--- ; s--- and a------ You can fill in the spaces, but think bs, fu, sh.. and ass....

The guide says "senior editors will make the call on when or if profanity is to run."

As for sports and entertainment reporters and columnists, Sun Media sees no reason for profanity on any of those pages.

"Sports and Entertainment should have very little reason to use profanity - abbreviated or not - and every reason to eliminate it from copy. Just because they said it, doesn’t mean we to run it."

WTF, there goes a lot of colour commentary by Jim Slotek and the hockey writers.

Meanwhile, a recommended addition to the guide: Electrocuted

If you are electrocuted, you are dead, not recovering in hospital as reported in a Sun story a few years ago.

The guide being in PDF format, it can, and probably will, be updated for additions and clarifications.

"I don't agree with it all but at least it's an attempt at codifying a uniform approach to style." says one Sun vet.

It's a start, but when it comes to the profanity guidelines, Sun Media has clearly distanced the Suns from a "tabloid" image. More broadsheet than tab, but then the Globe and Mail is a broadsheet and it has a very liberal approach to profanity.

Sanitized tabs (aside from the large number of adult entertainment and rub and tug massage parlour ads.) Go figure.

It makes us wonder if Paul Rimstead could say "dammit" in his columns if he were alive today.

Print + Net

For a number of years, all four Toronto daily newspapers clearly did not grasp the true wonder of the Internet - a golden opportunity to regain the crown as news breakers.

They waited until after their print editions hit the streets to update news on their web sites, news that radio and television had been airing for hours.

Several years ago, we checked the Sun site hourly for news about a policeman who had been shot and wounded, but not a word was posted until after the printed edition was on the streets the next morning.

With that frame of mind, radio and television would remain favourite sources for breaking news for decades to come, but the dailies have gradually introduced breaking news.

If the Sun ads mean what they say, when torontosun.com's new web site launches on Monday readers will finally have access to full multi-media news as it happens.

Give away the breaking news as it happens, not at 4 a.m. the next day, and you will still have an audience for the print edition, with exclusives surrounding the news, plus news, sports, finance and lifestyle columns, the editorial and op-ed pages, crossword puzzles, classifieds etc.

Give print readers what they won't find on the Net, radio and TV.

An online story from Australia's theage.com.au says it all about online newspapers gaining ground on radio and television as news breakers, while print editions hold their own.

The recommended read by Matthew Ricketson says:

"The Herald Sun, for example, has long been the biggest-selling metropolitan daily newspaper in Australia.

"In the most recent Audit Bureau of Circulations results announced last month, 530,000 copies of the newspaper were sold every day.

"There were also on average 1,875,016 people looking at heraldsun.com.au every month.

"Some people read the newspaper and browse online but it appears most read one or the other.

"In other words, the readership for the major newspapers has expanded."

We will know Monday if torontosun.com is serious about providing news as it happens.

Just wondering

Michael J. Fox recently told the Sun he has always wanted to be a SUNshine Boy.

So why didn't the Toronto Sun dust off the old SUNshine Boy logo for today's Michael J. Fox photo, used with a Bill Harris interview?

Great photo, but a missed opportunity to give Fox his SUNshine Boy status.

And while we're at it, re Ben Spencer's Page 3 "Fridge staff fears bad meat" story: What will the warehousing company do with the recalled Maple Leaf products?

Burn it? Bury it?

Not a word about what will be done with the recalled meat.

OK, one more.

Tamara Cherry's Page 2 plane crash story: The Cessna 172 four-seater plane "came crashing down . . ."

Came crashing down? And "yesterday" in two consecutive paragraphs?

Something tells us if the Toronto Sun's Assessment Notice returned tomorrow it would be more than the page Ed Monteith and his predecessor, Doug MacFarlane, used to post daily.

Sadly, without rewrites and mentoring the new generation of Sun reporters is not learning from the experience of others.

Much like it was for many of us during the Thomson years, when everything we wrote was used verbatim and we thought it was priceless prose.

Little did we know - until landing at a newspaper with crusty old editors prone to ask WTF? and a rewrite desk that offered advice while rewriting copy.

Many of the Toronto Sun reporters from the 1970s and 1980s often praise their mentors - Pyette, Worthington, Downing, Burke-Gaffney, Monteith, MacFarlane, Vezina etc., etc., etc.

They helped move us well beyond our limited Thomson mindset, occasionally in a tone of voice that left us wondering if we would be selling shoes a week later.

And thanks to their mentoring, we would never think of using "came crashing down."

Sun photogs

TSF received several comments about the loss of promising young Sun Media photographers, including a one-liner about Ottawa Sun management.

Another reader, a former Sun photographer who has been there, done that, offered a more detailed account of conditions at Sun newspapers that contribute to the loss of promising young award-winners like Blair Gable at the Ottawa Sun and Darryl Dyck at the Edmonton Sun.

"There have been a lot of young shooters leaving the Sun in the past five months . . . and there are a number of reasons for this," says the reader.

"Lack of resources.

"Sun media shooters (need) to beg to buy a camera bag to carry gear or other pieces of small equipment. There is a lot of stuff (not) supplied in most shops that is essential to making award winning images or functioning on a day-to-day basis.

"The majority of Sun Media photogs are using some piece of their own gear to make images for the paper, risking wearing out or breaking the piece of equipment for no reimbursement from Sun Media.

"Cheesy photos.

"A lot of photographers, not all, but a lot, inside Sun Media do not agree with the Sun's style of photography. The set-up shots make us look and feel ridiculous, painting the shooters in a bad light with photographers from other papers who have ethical issues with what Sun Media photogs do on a regular basis.

"New multimedia approach of Sun Media.

"Sun Media photogs going shoulder to shoulder with TV crews, while still trying to compete with the still shooters at certain events. It is impossible, and I have tried, to do both video and still at the same time without suffering a loss of quality, in one or both mediums. It also ads twice as much gear to carry to these assignments, which most are not worth shooting video at anyways.

"If video is so important, put the resources into it instead of overworking the photogs. It is good that they hired editors to cut up the video, but it is still a lot of extra work for the photo staff.

"Overtime and lower pay scales also help the negative attitude of Sun Media photographers in newsrooms.

"Right now, photojournalism has the old school guys and the younger new school shooters. The style from both of these groups is drastically different. And the style with the new school shooters doesn't always match up with the Sun style.

"That is why you see them leaving and other photogs laughing at Sun shooters as they run around with video cameras and still cameras, getting people to do ridiculous stuff instead of waiting for an actual moment to happen."

Thank you for the e-mails.

Sunday Sun

The $2.10 invested in yesterday's Toronto Sunday Sun paid off with a triple hitter from:

Mike Strobel - An uplifting update on "Stress," Colin Farrell's favourite Toronto street person, picked up by the Herald Sun in Melbourne, Australia.

Ian Robertson - A cold case update of the unsolved brutal murder of Leah Salina Sousa, 13, in Cumberland Beach 18 years ago.

Mark Bonokoski - The downfall and tragic ending for Darryl Thompson, a former Cobourg Daily Star sports reporter.

Excellent reads, the type of fare that gave the Sunday Sun an edge over the years.