Search

The article profiles "Soma," a weekly English-language newspaper focusing on Kurdistan, which was launched by Tanya Goudsouzian, a McGill University graduate. According to the author, the paper was launched in the winter of 2006 with assistance from Hiro Ibrahim Ahmad, the wife of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. Goudsouzian discusses how the newspaper aims to help establish journalism standards in Kurdistan and Iraq.

The changes have been anything but conservative at Canada's unabashedly right-wing national daily. After months of speculation that CanWest Global Communications Corp. was set to fold its perennially money-losing National Post, the paper was granted a reprieve. Ken Whyte, editor-in-chief, and Martin Newland, his deputy--the duo behind the Post's cheeky mixture of agenda-driven news, pointed commentary and unapologetic fluff, have left to pursue unspecified "opportunities." Leonard Asper, CanWest chief executive, announced a three-year plan to make the paper profitable and appointed his older brother David to oversee the flagship. Matthew Fraser, a media commentator and journalism professor with no previous management experience, was named editor-in-chief. More and more Post reporters have been showing up on TV screens, and the content of the chain's daily papers across the country has become increasingly standardized--a trend that seems sure to intensify as the company struggles to get out from under a $3.6-billion debt load.

This article presents the first and last campus journalism awards as selected by the author. This year's finest campus newspaper in Canada, according to me, is Quartier Libre at the Université de Montréal. And since one of the runners-up is the Link, from neighbouring Concordia University, the one-member jury of the First (and Last) Back Page Campus Journalism Awards has decided to crown Montreal as the capital of campus journalism in Canada. Both papers achieve quality by doing something that hasn't occurred to most Canadian campus papers: they take their time. Several weeks ago on my weblog I asked for samples of Canadian campus newspapers. Student scribes across the country hurried to comply, and it's been great fun to read their work. At the University of Saskatchewan, Drew Larson shot an amazing cover photo of the Arcade Fire for the Sheaf: two musicians with faces tilted up, mouths open in identical Os. Today's campus papers have too many opinion columns by students who had nothing new to say. Nobody in Canada is doing anything in English to match Quartier Libre.

This article focuses on David Radler and the illegal activities he was involved in during his partnership with Conrad Black. When David Radler became Canada's most treacherous informer last week, it was a stunning repudiation of his 36-year partnership with Conrad Black, the portentous power broker who turned himself into a weapon of mass self-destruction. Unlike Black, who courted the spotlight, Radler refused most interviews, pretending he was a simple man of God on a private mission with no name. I was one of the exceptions. He would often take me to lunch. He joined Black in buying the Sherbrooke Daily Record, where he is remembered mainly for the day an employee came into his office with a list of grievances. Instead of listening to him, Radler had two cents taken off his next paycheque for wasting a sheet of paper. He went on to create the three-man news department for his and Conrad's chain of 21 daily Sterling papers that limited editorial staff to an editor, sports writer and general reporter, with the balance of copy provided by news wires. When I asked Radler how he picked the newspapers he chose to buy, his explanation was simple. David Radler was lively and interesting, but his notion that cost-cutting constitutes great publishing is not going to win him many mourners at the tail end of his career. Now that he has agreed to plead guilty to the initial indictments aimed at the companies whose chief strategic animator he became, I hope that investigators take note of the stunning accusation made by a former publisher of the Jerusalem Post. Radler is the toughest-minded executive I ever encountered. Only facing up to 35 years of jail time brought him to heel.

Conrad Black's critics have seldom had fun or done big things -- while he can lay claim to both. Conrad Black back in the news, playing new variations on favourite themes: history, the English language, and unorthodox business practice. Lord Black of Crossharbour is in a financial mess these days. The vultures in competing British papers are circling around the still-warm form of Hollinger International, the holding company that owns London's Daily Telegraph and used to own most of Canada's larger daily newspapers. Hollinger may have to sell assets to meet its debt payments. Yet even as he tends to business, the boss devotes at least as much energy to his other passions. This has left a few skeptics wondering whether it was a good idea to use $12 million of Hollinger money to buy Franklin Delano Roosevelt's papers so Black could finish his Roosevelt biography.

This is an article that focuses on independent newspapers in Zimbabwe and the efforts of the government to repress the media. Like a middle digit raised defiantly in the face of authority, the Standard--one of Zimbabwe's last independent media voices--is located directly beneath the balconies, antennae and parabolic dishes of ZANU-PF headquarters. He's been in police custody since dawn, along with Valentine Maponga, a reporter for the paper, because of a story connecting allegations of high-level corruption with the murder of a mining executive. Deputy editor David Masunda is holding the fort, a situation he's accustomed to since Chakaodza has been arrested--but never convicted--eight times since joining the Sunday paper. An unlikely Horatio, Chakaodza was the editor of the Herald, the state-owned daily, until he started writing editorials critical of the government's use of thuggery and the way it plays the race card. Some have been beaten--in one case in a police station, on the orders of the army commander's wife--and the country's once famously independent judiciary is now packed with pro-Mugabe hacks.

Discusses the outbreak of newspaper wars as of November 1998. Mention of the launch of a national paper by Conrad Black and the following hostile takeover for the `The Toronto Sun' empire by the paper; Mention of several publishers, including John Honderich of `The Star.'

This article presents the author's experience as an intern for "Le Journal Hebdomadaire," an independent French-language magazine published in Casablanca, Morocco. I was about to start a six-month-long internship made possible by a fellowship from Ottawa's International Development Research Centre. How, I wondered, could a novice Canadian journalist contribute to one of the most daring print media in the Arab World? Le Journal Hebdomadaire (the weekly paper), which opened in 1999, is not aligned with any political party or ideology. It challenges Morocco's limits on free speech through tough investigative reporting of government corruption and taboo political topics. Morocco's 41-year-old king, Mohammed VI, who serves as political leader, Commander of the Faithful, and president of Rabat's surf club, has promised democratic reforms. As the months passed, my goal of fearlessly contributing to the advancement of press freedom was overtaken by the challenges of reporting in a foreign country. Still, I managed to write articles about Casablanca's female taxi drivers, a Moroccan playwright and an international media conference. In the wider world, it was a volatile time. The child hostages in Beslan, Russia were massacred, President George W. Bush was re-elected, Yasser Arafat died and the Southeast Asian tsunami hit. As I learned from working at Le Journal, press freedom in Morocco is fought for, word by word, deadline after deadline, sometimes with severe consequences.

We are in a media paradox. Never have we enjoyed as much scrutiny of public officials and finances but been so condemned for insensitivity and invasion of privacy. Research conducted by the Toronto polling firm Ipsos-Reid and Washington-based Pew Research Center for the People and the Press indicates that only about 30 per cent of the public trusts the media--a figure that is likely to erode further. True, a number of significant newspapers closed during that period--the Montreal Star, Winnipeg Tribune and Ottawa Journal--but there have been new papers launched, including the National Post and the Sun chain.

This is an article about television coverage of hurricanes and of news in general. The power of pictures and the ability to marry them with compelling narrative can give TV a considerable advantage over its competitors. Keep in mind, say those who argue Cronkite's point is still valid today, that if you take a transcript of every word uttered on a TV newscast and print it on the front page of a major daily, it might not fill that space, depending of course on the size of that page one picture. In the days before it hit, the highways heading out of Florida were jammed with residents on the run, while the highways heading into Florida must have looked like a racetrack for TV satellite trucks. Much of the eventual coverage, especially from local stations, was professionally done--after all, for millions of people in the storm area, TV was the place to turn for up-to-the-minute developments, not the morning paper with its regurgitation of what happened yesterday. Watching one U.S. network the other day, a hurricane-whipped reporter was standing on an almost 45-degree angle, yelling about how careless some Floridians were to be out in such bad weather.

Always nervous about the nostrums of Psychobabble 101, yore scribbler has generally not taken seriously all the writings about how the rise of feminism has enfeebled the male race and [...]

Discusses how the author's husband is starting up a national newspaper in Canada. The party he threw in celebration of the launch; How she believes every journalist dreams of starting a newspaper; Her criticism of the homogeneity of the Canadian media; How starting a newspaper can become a compulsion.

Argues that nostalgia for past years and independent owners in the field of journalism is misplaced. Conrad Black's hold on daily newspapers in Canada; Arguments in favor of regulating control of the media; The author's opinion that journalists have become better educated and better trained.

The article reports on the resistance to change of the families who control major U.S. newspapers. Media magnate Rupert Murdoch's bid to acquire Dow Jones & Co. and its flagship "Wall Street Journal" publication was brushed off by Dow's controlling Bancroft family, and calls for change have been similarly resisted by the Sulzbergers of "New York Times" fame.

This article discusses how the author's great-grandfather has inspired her, despite the fact that they have never met. The city of Montreal is about to name a park after my great-grandfather, Harry (Hirsch) Wolofsky. A plaque bearing his name will soon commemorate his contributions to Montreal's Jewish community, both as a newspaper editor and publisher and founding father of much of the infrastructure that serves our community. Born in Poland, Hirsch arrived in Montreal in 1900 and started a fruit store on St. Laurent Boulevard. He started Eagle Publishing Co., and in 1907 began printing the Keneder Adler (the Canadian Eagle), Canada's first daily Yiddish newspaper (until the 1950s, Yiddish was Montreal's third most-spoken language, after English and French). During the First World War, political columnists challenged readers to join the Jewish Legion of the British Army and fight for a Jewish state in Palestine. On top of all that, Hirsch was seminal in establishing Jewish schools, libraries, hospitals, kosher kitchens, old age homes and welfare services. This heritage is the bane of my existence. Since kindergarten, my Yiddish teachers have reminded me where I come from. Of close to 100 of Hirsch's descendants, I appear to be the only one carrying on his legacy. It was always my dream to enter the family "trade" and I had to follow it.

Focuses on the impact of CanWest Global Communications Corp.'s policy to publish centrally written editorials in its major urban dailies. Details of the experience at the Regina Leader-Post; View of some that the centralized policy would crimp expression of local views; Comments of journalists Murdoch Davis and Haroon Siddiqui; Reaction of CanWest chief executive officer Leonard Asper to the controversy.

Focuses on the journalism industry as of June 4, 2001. View that journalism is a business, in which profitability and the maintenance of market share are important; Thoughts on the dismissal of Bonnie Fuller as editor of 'Glamour' magazine; The impact of so-called media convergence, in which conglomerates buy newspapers, magazines, and television stations, on journalism; Changes in the Canadian journalism industry.

Discusses double standards in Canadian journalism. How journalists exploit mistakes made by politicians; Interviews which are re-edited in order to make the interviewer's questions more eloquent; Effects of political campaigns on journalism.

Focuses on Canadian investigative crime reporter Michel Auger. An attempt on his life, and the possible connections of the crime to his writings; Dangers of crime reporting; How Auger differs from the stereotypical crime reporter; His reputation in the field; Experiences of other crime reporters.

Opinion. Was it right or wrong for the `Winnipeg Free Press' to dip into the Finance Minister's personal notes and publish excerpts from them? The notes were inadvertently left in a hotel lobby after a press conference. The difference between the `Free Press' reporter's action, and receiving something in the mail from an unknown source is that in the second case the source is unknown. The material cannot be sent back. The reporter should have returned the papers.

Questions how to reach the public today with a positive message. Recent experience, for example the referendum campaign, seems to tell both the print and electronic media that many people are simply not reading or listening to information of any substance. Attempt by both the print and electronic media to make the Charlottetown accord understandable; Identifiable major influences almost all were news stories which spoke to the emotions; Examples.

In this article the author discusses the political corruption investigation in which former Canadian leader Brian Mulroney is said to have taken money from Karlheinz Schreiber, a German businessman, in return for government contracts. The author faults the Canadian press for its lack of interest in the corruption proceedings.

Interviews John R. MacArthur, president and publisher of 'Harper's' magazine and author of the 1992 book 'Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War.' Where MacArthur was when the U.S-led war with Iraq began in 2003; How war news in the U.S. is biased and pro-military; Thoughts on U.S. reporters being embedded with U.S. soldiers and reporting from the front line; Opinion concerning military censorship versus self-censorship.

The article offers the author's view that the government should subsidize job training. He argues that people view education as a necessity and believe that more education is better, when in many industries, formal education is not necessarily a path to success. He focuses on the journalism industry, decrying the institution of new journalism programs at colleges when print journalism as an industry is struggling to continue existing in 2013.

Reflects on experiences traveling in different parts of the world. Thoughts on driving a Vespa scooter through Europe; Driving a rental car to travel through Canada; Journey through Russia, accompanied by an Intourist guide; Reflections on being a traveling journalist.

Editorial. Addresses the difficulty of finding the right mix between the good and bad news reported in `Maclean's' magazine. Difficulty due to the lack of a consensus among readers regarding what is a good or bad news story; Consequences faced by `USA Today' after covering a plane crash in an upbeat manner; View that decisions regarding which news topics to cover are based on gut feelings and experience.

Presents an overview of editorial decisions that inform the scope and content of the articles in this issue. Inclusion of more photo essays, contributions by outside voices, and stories with a different focus than those appearing in daily newspapers in Canada; Challenges to the process; Coverage of the Calgary Stampede and the decision awarding the 2008 Olympic Games to Beijing, China instead of Toronto, Ontario.

Focuses on the variety of Canadian news sources as of July, 2001. Challenges of the news business; Thoughts on the magazine and newspaper industry; Constraints placed on the television news business by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC); Comments on the CRTC.

Recounts the author's five decades of work as a journalist in Canada. His first job at 'The Financial Post'; Some of the politicians he has interviewed during his career; What he has learned about the country over the five decades.

Comments on the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) public television broadcasting company in Canada. How it is different from private sector counterparts; The quality of CBC reporters and correspondents; How a public broadcaster provides a sense of conscience in journalism.

Reports that Conrad Black, owner of Southam Inc., has angered some of his employees by writing a highly opinionated book review for two of his Canadian newspapers. His review of William Kaplan's `Presumed Guilty: Brian Mulroney, the Airbus Affair, and the Government of Canada'; The publication of the review in the Montreal `Gazette' and the `Ottawa Citizen,' as well as `The Vancouver Sun' and `The Calgary Herald.'