Exclusive: Slowly Dying Media Continues To Slowly DIe!

From Toronto Sun Family blog:

Layoffs over at 333 King today. 3 advertising coordinators, and I'm sure there will be more to come before the big move to the National Post building.

PS.  The new NP "building" isn't really so much a building as a tent city on the banks of The Don River. The reporters who are left file from a nearby Tim Hortons, using the complimentary wifi there, and pee into the river itself, which is why nothing can live in The Don.

The Problem With Hosting Trolls

As you can see, The Sun chain of newspapers (now part of Post Media) have decided to kill off the comments section to most of their stories.  But all is not lost!

...we will continue to post our stories, columns and editorials on social media, including Twitter and Facebook, and you will be able to comment on them there as you always have.

In other words, the trolls can still have the cheap seats.   But there may be a problem.  They've apparently tried this before:

Not a surprise, since the non-Sun PM sites did this awhile ago. That said, a few years ago, a similar ban on comments was attempted by the Suns. PKP was all for it. Then the web traffic just cratered.... and comments were allowed again. So it will be interesting to see what occurs since, these days, clicks are all that count.

In other words, while you and I may call them the scum of the Earth,  the sun chain calls them readers and they need 'em to to convince advertisers to place banner ads on their various websites.  So, a conundrum.

Cannibalized From Within: The Fate Of Postmedia?

From The Toronto Sun Family blog:

If you want to glimpse the future, consider LaPresse, which will no longer be publishing weekdays. One paper a week on Saturdays - otherwise, it's all on their tablet app.

Expect similar things in PM along with the merging of various products. Several sections of the Post, for example, are now going to be running within copies of the Edmonton Journal and other PM broadsheets.

What Post Media Bought, When They Bought Sun Media

Part of any sale or purchase it that of good will. They buy the title with the assumption that they are buying, in this case a newspaper (s) that are beloved by their customers. We all know that as stated earlier, "when they see the circulation, they'll throw up" I was embarrassed to tell people our paid circulation numbers, they are pitiful. We try to not mention paid versus free, it just complicates things.

Just a rumor; one I'm trying to spread, not start.

News You Can Luze

#CRTC sides with Rogers in carriage dispute over Sun News Network http://t.co/tHOY8dRTud
— Steve Faguy (@fagstein) October 2, 2014

 

#CRTC: Rogers "set-top-box data that showed that #SunNews consistently ranked at or near the bottom of audience viewing levels"
— Steve Faguy (@fagstein) October 2, 2014

#SunNews asked that its poor ratings not be considered by the #CRTC in evaluating the quality of its service. http://t.co/tHOY8dRTud
— Steve Faguy (@fagstein) October 2, 2014

Die Media Die: New Round Of Layoffs At Sun Media?

,,,at the Ottawa Sun, in specific: It pretty much leaves the cleaning staff to run the place, perhaps a precursor to selling or shutting down.  Pretty soon there won't be anything left for Justin to boycott.

Portents?

Look for announcements about Sun Media cutting frequency of papers in southwestern Ontario this week and next week.

And:

...heard a rumour of press room layoffs in London, anyone hear more?

And at Sun News Network HQ some guy apparently came around this week to look at the HVAC system.  When a guy comes around to look at the HVAC system, it usually means your building is up for sale.  Pink slips usually follow soon after.

Sun Media Shuts Down Three More

The Lac du Bonnet Leader, The Beausejour Review, and The Meadow Lake Progress.  The market cannot support and yada yada yada.  Its always that.  Its never: "We up here in management couldn't find our ass with both hands".

More Sun Media Layoffs Coming?

Its starting to sound like it.  Toronto Sun Family has a new layoff forum up.  From it:

Web hits are down since the paywall went up, while social media "experts" are telling journalists to tweet more, post more often on Facebook, engage in every social media outlet out there, on top of writing 3-4 stories a day. 

Sun Media Still Shrinking

Starting next week, the Portage Daily Graphic will continue to be a daily newspaper at portagedailygraphic.com. Its print edition, which will come out on Tuesdays, will be named The Graphic, while the Central Plains Herald-Leader will become the Herald-Leader and publish on Thursdays. The editorial staff will continue to work diligently to report the breaking news in Portage la Prairie and the Central Plains and feed it to the website www.portagedailygraphic.com

From daily to weekly.  More press-men out of work, I imagine.  That's the sad part of these stories.  The columnists, the opinionizers...they can go burn.

Slow Death Of Sun Media Continues Slowly

Sun Media, which owned the [Amherstburg] Echo, also operates Windsor This Week. Mike Power, publisher of the Toronto Sun and vice-president of sales and advertising for Ontario, said Amherstburg will still be served with news in Windsor This Week, which is delivered to homes for free. In the region, Sun Media also owns the Leamington Post and Tri Tour News.

More news on the most recent round of blood-letting here.

Montreal Mirror Gone?

It seems so, though the comment from the editor-in-chief (through link) makes this a little unclear.  Perhaps they will continue as a web-based publication,  like The Torontoist.  Kind of a pity, because I've always had a soft-spot for the weeklies.  Wonder what this portends for NOW?

A Typo Or Par For The Course?

Of course, if it wasn't Sun Media you wouldn't need to ask.  In any case, I would suggest it detracts from the serious of the editorial message.

St. Catherine's Standard Sacks A Dozen

So say the rumors.  Die Sun Media Die.

More Layoffs, Dropped Editions Coming To Sun Media?

 News of the latest at Postmedia has prompted speculation among the folks at the Toronto Sun Family Blog.  Dropping weekend editions has already been discussed among Sun Media management, though not yet implemented.  Furthermore, some staffers have been asked to use up their vacation time before the end of 2012....to make buyout packages a little less expensive, perhaps?   Hmmm.

T.O. Sun Sacks Another

 Connie Woodcock says she has been axed after 18 years as an op-ed Toronto Sun columnist.

Posted at Toronto Sun Family Blog, who are usually pretty reliable.

Meet Your New Sun Media Newspapers

 This announcement is less than it seems:

Sun Media is converting Smart Shopper products into editorial newspapers. Funny how the company doesn't acknowledge that in its propaganda material.

Forget Free Speech: Its Time To Grovel

The London Free Press is slated to become a "mobile newsroom", so called because these kinds of changes typically involve reporters being set free to wander the streets in search of other employment.  In any case, Quebecor boss-of-bosses Pierre Karl Péladeau decided he would use the occasion to visit his word-slaves at the LFP and pull a few wings off.  In advance of the glorious visit, Joe Ruscitti, the paper's editor-in-chief, sent around the following e-mail:

“Monday morning Aug. 29 930-11ish, PKP will be in the building and it’s my understanding he aims to have a walk about in the newsroom, including chats with staff.

“This would be a good time to look and act sharp.

“This would probably not be a good time to tell the boss how much better we would be if we had this many more reporters or this or that piece of equipment, etc.

It turns out PKP didn't show, though the revamp is still scheduled for late this month.  The reporters lose their cubicles.  The old press room is being rented out as a hand-ball court.  As part of the "mobile" theme, staff will have to bag their own trash and carry it to the dumpster. 

So I hear, anyway.

Why Sun Media Quit The Ontario Press Council

Some speculation from John Miller (several weeks old, but not reported elsewhere as far as I know):

Sun Media's stated reasons for pulling out are as misleading and full of holes as some of its breezy tabloid news stories. I'm told the breaking point came earlier this month when Sun executives showed up bristling with anger at a press council hearing into a complaint from the Canadian Labour Congress about this story written by Brian Lilley, its chief parliamentary correspondent.

Yup.  If its not Brian Lilley getting them  into Dutch, its Ezra.  And it its not Ezra its Krista Erickson. 

Actually, its pretty much all of them, but for Akin.

Things Which May Be Connected

 Kate's Butt.

Sun Media's decision to pull out of the Ontario Press Council:

The Toronto Sun must be getting too many complaints about its decision to publish that embarrassing Kate Middleton photo. The Sun has apparently removed the picture from its web site.

The Sun initially held the picture for two days before running it. Is this because the photo violated the media rules and publishing it sooner would've had the Sun kicked off the tour? (I've covered eight royal tours).

The Sun tried to mitigate any potential fallout by (i) (wrongly) claiming that the same/similar photos by other photographers were "circling the globe"; (ii) likening the photo to a fun, posed, publicity picture of Marilyn Monroe; and (iii) claiming the picture was "compelling and newsworthy".

No other wire services moved the picture. No other paper published it. Even British tabs refused to use a similar picture.

Having done extensive research via google image employing such terms as "Kate's Butt" and "Royal upskirt", I can confirm point i).