Teh Fuchure Off Jurnolizm

The rest is here. Don't blame me if it burns out your spell-checker.

Someone Hire An Editor For The Welland Tribune

...or fire the one they've got. It's been fixed, but google is unforgiving.

h/t

Bad News For Sun Chain Employees

When the big boss is taking his own pics, you are soon going to be asked to clean your own toilets.

h/t

"Post" As In "Postmortem", As In Posthumous

The National Post continues its death spiral, according to statistics from the National Audience Databank:

Overall, the weekday Star is read by more than 963,000 readers every day in the GTA, a 1.1 per cent decline from the same period last year. Weekday readership for the Post plunged 32.3 per cent, and the Globe and Mail fell 13 per cent to 354,000 during the same period. Weekday readership for the Sun was up 8.7 per cent, to about 445,000 readers.

And though the Sun seems to have staged a bit of a comeback, they still appear to be laying off staff.

If These Clowns Tried To "Lock And Load" They'd Get Their Thumb Stuck

Teneycke's editorial from yesterday. That is all.

Bono Dodges The Reaper

Mark Bonokowski, that is. His disappearance from the T.O. Sun masthead appears to stem from the fact that he is on vacation, as confirmed by this tweet from the 27th, and not from the fact that the Vampire Teneckcye sacked his ass out the door.

...Although he's been on vacation since the 25th, and his name was only pulled down on the 27th. And why would you pull a name for that anyway?

Anyway, have a good vacation Mark! But be careful when you get back to the office. Carry garlic!

A Dark Figure Stalks The Sun Chain

...sucking talent from the veins of its demoralized staffers:

Mark Bonokoski's name was missing from the Toronto Sun's Comment section masthead on Wednesday.

Has he struck again? I'm about a half-hour from getting a look at a physical copy of the Sun: if anyone can check the mast-head and let me know whether another Sun old-timer has been "right-sized", I would appreciate it.

Update: Not on the masthead today either. Hmmm!

Sun Goes CP Free...Or Not

I've written once or twice...well, once...about the Canoe chain's (Toronto Sun and co.) attempts to wean themselves from Canadian Press wire stories as a cost cutting measure. Well, this week they've been attempting an experiment:

A TSF tipster says Sun Media editors have been told not to use Canadian Press content from April 5 through 10, not even a file shot.

"It is a dry run for when they go AP/CP free on July 1," says the tipster.

Alas! The experiment goes poorly.

Next up: the washroom stalls at 333 King (T.O. Sun HQ) will be made coin-operated.

Newspaper Readership Stabilizes

Conservative newspaper readership remains in flaming death spiral:

Weekday readership for The Globe and Mail rose 6.2 per cent to 406,500 in the GTA, the NADbank survey found. In comparison, the Toronto Sun's weekday readership plunged 21.5 per cent to 372,300 while the National Post fell 13.5 per cent to 167,800.

More statistics here. And a lament to the TO Sun of yore here. Gawd I love it when old newspapermen cry!

Toronto Sun Staff Exit The Propertied Class

...become renters. Will their coverage lurch left?

Looks like the sale of 333 King St. is nearing completion. Going forward, The Sun will lease back a portion of the building from its new owners. Six floors of newspaper will be crammed onto one. Staff will lose free parking, their cafeteria, and their printing presses. They are being advised to keep warm in winter by "running around in circles". They will be sharing the building with other commercial entities, including a laundromat and a paint-ball facility. No word on the purchaser, but the phrase "Sharia finance" comes up in the official sales docs on several occasions. Will traditional head-gear become a union issue when the next contract rolls around?

My Favorite Sunshine Girl

...has rejoined the ranks of the employed:

Linda Leatherdale, the former veteran Toronto Sun money section maestro, has a new job at Cambria, 'the fastest growing quartz surfaces brand and company in North America.'

Congratulations, Linda.

It Happened Not A Mile From Me

I draw money from the outlet pictured here about once a month, and this picture won Dave Abel a National Newspaper Award.

Quebecor might have made him pay his own way to the awards ceremony.

Edmonton Sun Snuffs Neil Waugh

Neil Waugh, a high-profile Edmonton Sun political columnist, and 19 other colleagues were pink slipped today, TSF sources report.

But as long as the Wunderbabe's still working, who cares?

Quebecor Pulls More Perqs

Wow! Talk about cheap bastards:

Toronto Sun sources say all of the water coolers at 333 will soon be removed, leaving staff to drink tap water or their own bottled water.

Quebecor's penny-pinching is now a theatre of the absurd.

Apparently, this move will effect all of Quebecor. From the comments:

The water cooler thing must be chain-wide as the Edmonton Sun is losing its coolers as well.

What next? Pay toilets for staff? Stay tuned.

Linda Leatherdale Lands On Feet

Congrats to Linda Leatherdale, the Toronto Sun's booted business editor, for finding a new radio voice on Bill Carroll's morning show on CFRB 1010.

As I've mentioned previously, I've had the pleasure of talking with Linda on 100s of occasions over the years. She even helped me get started in this whole "wannabe journalist" thing way back in the 1990s when I discovered that Toronto's new property assessment regime was going to screw over renters. All you could do back then was write letters to the Ed and call your local business reporter! Primitive times!

Anyway, its nice to see her still able to put food on the table.

Canada: Home Of Cheap Media Labor

Sources tell CBS 2 the paper is taking steps to cut its unionized copy and layout editors.

They include people who handle things like headlines, who check articles for accuracy, and who make the pages the way you see them.

So who would pick up the slack?

The same sources say the Sun-Times might send the work to a firm in Canada or India.

If it wasn't for the thing about checking for accuracy, I'd say use the gang from Can-West. They're definitely going to need an alternative source of income. I saw one of their staffers yesterday licking the NP front page for the calories in its ink.

Meanwhile, Canoe might dump CP:

What it basically comes down to is a phasing out of the wire. We're told now to avoid using Canadian Press as much as possible and I predict in a year or so Sun Media will no longer be associated with CP, or at least at the smaller daily papers. A couple have already cancelled the service in the past year.

The start of a broader trend?

Canoe In Deep Decline

It looks like the National Post isn't the only paper in trouble. The London Free Press, part of Quebecor's Canoe chain of newspapers, has scrapped its Sunday Edition.

Yet another media outlet that's too right-wing for Canada? Or is it something more?