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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.

In the age of convergence, where fearsome local editors have taken a back seat to faceless corporate managers from out of town, the romantic good old days at the [Montreal Gazette[ are slipping fast into nostalgia, alongside the three-martini lunch, felt fedoras thrown on the ice at the Forum, and the let-them-deny-it approach to sensational copy. The paper became part of a megadeal that saw the Asper family's CanWest Global Communications Corp. of Winnipeg gain control of the Southam newspapers from media mogul Conrad Black. The Gazette was a building block of the fabled Montreal Anglo establishment which controlled much of Canada's economy, to say nothing of national politics, through most of the last two centuries. Journalists complain about the Aspers' bottom-line-driven style of management. The Gazette has been a special place since its inception. One of its backers was an American, Benjamin Franklin, and its first publisher was a Voltairean freethinker from France.

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 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.

Presents the opinion of the author of American journalists in Canada. One would like to think that Ottawa would encourage American newspapers, from the land that famously does not understand Canada, to station correspondents here. Instead it nourishes a policy that drives American reporters out. There are at least two dozen correspondents from the major American papers stationed in Mexico. There are only two 'Wall Street Journal' business reporters in Canada. Ottawa taxes the tax remuneration of foreign correspondents as an additional benefit. The 'Los Angeles Times' and the 'New York Times' have removed their correspondents. Ottawa remains oblivious. The best observers in any country are foreigners.

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.

Focuses on Canadian journalist Stephen Kimber who quit his job at the Halifax 'Daily News,' after it refused a column he wrote criticizing the paper's owner CanWest Global Communications Corp. Speaking engagements he has gotten since he quit, including the Canadian Association of Journalists; Travel to the U.S. and Australia to talk about loosening regulations of cross-media ownership restrictions.

Presents the opinion that the Canadian government is stupid and the Canadian people are naive. Topic of relations between the United States and Canada; Thoughts on how taxation in Canada keeps foreign journalists out of the country; Criticism of the reasoning behind taxing journalists.

Reports the resignation of newspaper columnist Robert Fulford from `The Globe and Mail' and his employment at the `National Post.' Reasons for the writer's move; Effects of the move on the newspapers; History of the newspapers' competition.

This article is a reprint of an essay about the future written by Christina McCall, who died recently in 2005. In 1969, the journalist Christina McCall was commissioned by her future husband, the editor and academic Stephen Clarkson, to imagine the world 50 years hence. A long-time contributor and former editor at Maclean's, McCall died recently at age 70. Clarkson read the essay at her wake. It is reprinted here with his permission. When you get right down to it -- staring at the blank paper, plumbing the depths of the even blanker imagination, reviving forgotten fantasies left over from world-beating yapfests in college common rooms -- it soon becomes obvious that the postulation of a paradise for women of my age and general persuasion is pretty bloody difficult, if not to say impossible. In brief, it's far easier to describe what my utopia won't be like than what it will and to say that everything will be groovy half a century from now if: Betty Friedan and her ladies of NOW are all sleeping securely underground in some corner of Westchester County, happy in the knowledge they were lowered there by female gravediggers earning union scale. Publishers have abandoned forever magazines devoted exclusively to fashion, food, royalty and your child and no serious newspaper editor thinks that in publishing a whole section page of cooking and marketing trivia he's taken care of the interests of his female readers. Lest this appear entirely negative, I'll finish in solemnity by stating that I do have a few positive and not entirely improbable ideas about what the next 50 years ideally will bring to women.

This article focuses on the conflict between two Canadian newspapers, the National Post and the Globe and Mail. Phillip Crawley came to Canada in 1998 with a simple mission: kill the upstart National Post. As publisher of the Globe and Mail, he was heralded as a battle-hardened veteran of newspaper wars in his native Britain and was given the support and considerable resources of the Globe's owner and Canada's richest man, Ken Thomson, to repulse the challenge of Conrad Black's cheeky and ambitious new daily. Most media observers are quick to say the Globe has won the newspaper war, but Crawley knows better. If Crawley and Thorsell are right and the Post is here for good, it not only has deep significance for Crawley's legacy as publisher--it has enormous implications for the Globe's business, and for the sector as a whole. Three Toronto financial analysts, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the business is not as healthy as Crawley claims.

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.

The article profiles journalist Jan Wong, focusing on her self-published memoir "Out of the Blue: A Memoir of Workplace Depression, Recovery, Redemption and, Yes, Happiness" about her struggle with her former employer, the "Globe and Mail" newspaper, over unpaid medical leave. Topics include her former Maoist political leanings, her "Lunch With..." column that lambasted celebrities in interviews, and negative reaction to comments she made about Quebec after a school shooting in 2006.

This article discusses the popularity of sex columns on college campuses. After three years of providing an Ivy League perspective on dance floor erections and faking orgasm, Natalie Krinsky, the native of Dundas, Ont., had enough material to write the just-out novel Chloe Does Yale. Now a 22-year-old bachelor of history living in New York (her family relocated there when she was 15), Krinsky is writing a second novel while contributing to The Village Voice and negotiating with a major Hollywood studio over rights to Chloe. Tapping into the same vibe that makes TV shows like Sex and the City and The O.C. into hits, college newspapers in Canada and the U.S. are including regular features and columns on sex. A major consideration for most campus sex columnists is impact on friends and family. Some topics, however, are just too hot to handle. In Canada, sex stories don't usually cause such a fuss. In fact, for many campus columns that rely on what-should-I-do letters, questions have to be made up because of a lack of reader response. Most campus sex columns by men are heavy on humour and light on substance.

This article focuses on Peter Newman, a writer and editor of Maclean's who has contributed greatly to its success. Amid the pile of papers that always seem to find a home atop my office desk, one piece has had pride of place in the past month. It's a photocopy Peter C. Newman sent of a letter written to him on Maclean's stationery on Oct. 13, 1954. More than 50 years have passed since Peter began his association with the magazine with that letter--and both he and Berton have gone on to much greater fame, wealth (and occasional notoriety) through their respective bestselling books and other ventures. But even in a field as incestuous as Canadian journalism--where everybody knows everybody, or pretends they do--it's remarkable to see the convergence of three of the greatest names in the business (Allen was a legendary editor in his day) on the same page and letterhead. Our cover package this week is--in a most Newman-esque way--a sort of celebration of a man who has been a leading figure in the life of this country and of this magazine as columnist and, as editor for 11 years, creator of the present newsweekly format.

Presents passages from people's lives as of June 2003. Selection of Senior Writer Brian Bethune of "Maclean's" periodical to receive the 10th annual Jack Award, an honour recognizing an individual who contributed significantly to the promotion of Canadian books; Release of Hillary Clinton's White House memoir, "Living History"; Resignation of "New York Times" executive editor Howell Raines, 60, and managing editor Gerald Boyd, 52, after the recent scandal over Jayson Blair, the staff reporter who committed journalistic fraud in more than 30 stories.

Offers an essay on politics and government in Canada. Focus on Scott Feschuk, who is the speech writer for Prime Minister Paul Martin; Political comment by the author on how Feschuk can shift blame to the previous administration; Discussion of Feschuk's credentials and his departure on the "National Post"; Outlook for relations between Martin and the administration of American President George W. Bush; Idea that speech writers have power and responsibility; Star columnists who have left the "National Post" newspaper.

This article discusses a report concerning the death of Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi, in relation to the political situation in Iran. To journalists in Iran, Saeed Mortazavi, the all-powerful chief prosecutor of Tehran, is best known and feared for the room behind his office. Now, according to a report by a committee of Iran's parliament, Mortazavi, the man who led the official investigation into Kazemi's death and is overseeing the trial of the intelligence ministry agent accused of beating her into a coma, is the one who should be facing justice. In an extraordinary challenge to the hardline clerics who control the police, judiciary and almost all of the political power in this country, reformist members of parliament are saying Tehran's chief prosecutor tampered with evidence, ordered witnesses to lie, and may have been present when the blows rained down. Mortazavi remains a powerful figure with powerful friends, said Hossein Ansari Rad, a moderate cleric, and even the worldwide publicity generated by Kazemi's death might not be enough to budge hard-liners Even before the release of the report, Stephan Hachemi laid the blame for his mother's death squarely on Tehran's prosecutor.

The article explores press coverage and public opinion on U.S. President Donald Trump in countries such as Russia, Tanzania, Spain, and Mexico. Emphasis is given to topics such as relations between Russia and the U.S., Trump's sex scandal with former adult film actress Stormy Daniels, and the demands on journalists covering Trump's administration.

The article comments on Canadian hockey and introduces new writers at "Maclean's." Unlike many nations, Canada has two pastimes: hockey, and worrying about the state of Canadian hockey. But after our team's stirring 5-0 victory over Russia at this year's World Junior Championships, the latter pursuit is due for a well-deserved rest. This is the second consecutive world championship for Canada's juniors. Last year's team ended a seven-year drought, that included four second-place finishes. But whereas last year's team was jammed with professional-level talent, this year's squad had no Sidney Crosby, Jeff Carter, Patrice Bergeron, or Dion Phaneuf to rely on. This time it was a team defined by tenacity, defensive responsibility, and work ethic. Anne Kingston, an award-winning journalist and author, joins Maclean's as a Senior Writer. Jaime J. Weinman is our new Assistant Editor, writing mainly on television and pop culture, and, finally, Barbara Righton returns full-time to Maclean's as Associate Editor.

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.

Presents a eulogy for columnist Dalton Camp. Relationships between Camp and politicians and writers; Experiences of the author with Camp; Advice offered by Camp to younger journalists; Coverage of Canadian politics by Camp.

Eulogizes Doug Collins, a former editorial writer for the 'Vancouver Sun.' Defense of his reputation against allegations of anti-Semitism; Mention of how he was a prisoner of war during World War II; Career highlights; His strong and often controversial opinions.

Profiles George Bain, who was awarded with an Order of Canada. Personal and career information; His work as a columnist at 'The Globe and Mail'; His attitude toward politicians; His modesty.

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.

This article presents an excerpt from the book "Here Be Dragons," by Peter Newman, which focuses on the life of journalist Barbara Amiel, and her marriage to Conrad Black. Peter C. Newman, Canada's pre-eminent chronicler of Canada's elite, reveals even more secrets in his autobiography, Here Be Dragons (Douglas Gibson Books, $42.99), to be published on Nov. 13. In the first of two adaptations from the 714-page book, Newman profiles Barbara Amiel, whom he hired when he was Maclean's editor three decades ago, long before she married Conrad Black. While I abhorred her facile dismissal of the small-l liberalism that was my own ideological bent, I admired the nerve of her contrarian views and her penchant for ad hominem attacks. That was my first revelation about Ms. Amiel: she had not much of a sense of humour--and none about herself. With his first wife, Conrad had lived in a relatively modest house in outlying Highgate, but when Barbara swept into his life, the newlyweds moved into London's most prestigious area, purchasing a mansion near Kensington Palace, the royal residence of British sovereigns until 1760 and the home of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Roses are in bloom in Baghdad. In a little walled garden, I sit and rock in an old two-seater swing. From here, the war is an auditory experience: a missile hits another palace, bombers circle overhead, and Iraqis respond with anti-aircraft guns. And sometimes the war is olfactory: the acrid, sulphurous smell of spent gunpowder, or the aromatic smoke of fragrant shrubs set on fire during combat, or the stench of burning petrol. With the power cut, Baghdad is as black as oil at night. On April 1, with the ground war raging closer to Baghdad, a frenzied confusion descends upon the angry swarms of Iraqi intelligence agents whose job it is to keep close watch over foreigners in the city. In addition to soldiers dug in everywhere, Baghdad witnesses a new sight: the sinister movements of the Fedayeen Saddam troops. American tanks made an incursion into the south of the city in an effort to reach the airport or to take position on the access road to the airport. As I film the smouldering American tank from our car, a pickup truck swerves to a stop in front of us and an Iraqi secret-police agent jumps angrily out. Omar's father then offers the Americans some advice: "I hope at least that they will have the wisdom to let the Iraqis rule Iraq."

Recalls the highlights of the life of Canada-based journalist Jack Webster who died in March 1999 following a long bout with Alzheimer's disease. Family and career backgrounds; Memories from colleagues; Reputation among fellow journalists.

Reports that a team of Toronto journalists is developing a made-in-Canada weekly scandal sheet, entitled `Public Eye.' Brainchild of publisher Ray Mason; Editor Jim Peters; Problems coming up with sexy scandals about Canadian stars.

Comments on the relationship between journalists and politicians in Canada. The constant meetings between the two which are responsible for so-called news leaks; Why newspapers should be able to identify the politician they received information from; How the inability to remain anonymous would change journalism and politics in Canada; The importance of trust between journalist and reader, and why identifying sources could help foster that trust.

Reports on the decision of `The New York Times' and `Washington Post' to publish the manifesto of a serial killer. Reason for the decision; Journalists and academics' reaction to the action of the two newspapers; Description of the manifesto.

An interview with Avi Lewis, a journalist and filmmaker, is presented. He discusses the Leap Manifesto and the crisis facing Canada, which includes the climate crisis, the inequality crisis and community crisis. He tackles the shift to renewable energy being called by the Leap Manifesto. Also, he reacts to the response of critics to the Leap Manifesto.

The author reports on the legal vindication that journalist Conrad Black may receive. Black was set free on bail in 2010 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the honest service clause which helped convict him on fraud and obstruction of justice charges. He remained in the public eye when he was in prison by writing columns for the newspaper the "National Post."

The article focuses on the French media coverage of their politicians' private lives. French news organizations have been more discreet about their politician's personal lives than journalists in English-speaking countries. In France, press cards are handed out by the state and many reporters will not do anything to jeopardize that. The firing of a magazine editor by French president Nicolas Sarkozy is detailed.

This article focuses on author Neil Strauss and how he was inspired to write the book "The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists." Neil Strauss is not your standard-issue pickup artist. An L.A.-based journalist -- and the co-author of several raunchy celebrity tomes, including Mötley Crüe's The Dirt and Jenna Jameson's How to Make Love Like a Porn Star. An editor he knew asked him to take a look at an online guide to seducing women as fodder for a potential book. The next thing he knew, he'd stumbled into the heart of a covert online community of international pickup artists -- self-styled masters of seduction with names like Mystery, Juggler and Twotimer -- who devote all of their waking hours to perfecting and teaching the science of scoring. Strauss embarked on a two-year crash course in advanced womanizing under the tutelage of this ragtag band of gurus, ultimately achieving MPUA (master pickup artist) status in his own right. He chronicles this journey -- which consumed his life and landed him in "field-training" workshops in Toronto, Montreal, New York, Belgrade and beyond -- in explicit and often revolting detail in his controversial new book, The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, in stores on Sept. 6. In hindsight, what really blew Strauss away about this community was how organized and sophisticated it is in its methods. Early on, still feeling a little embarrassed about the whole thing, Strauss shelled out US $500 to take part in an L.A. workshop offered by one of the group's luminaries, a six-foot-five Toronto-born illusionist named Mystery, whose Mystery Method involves manipulating social dynamics in order to snag the most beautiful woman in any room. The Game, which has already been optioned by Columbia TriStar Films, is in many ways a triumph of misogyny, though Strauss prefers to paint it as an honest, heartfelt examination of male sexual frustration.

Recounts `Maclean's' correspondent John Holland's experiences at the Al Rashid Hotel during the first United States-led bombing of Baghdad, Iraq, on January 17, 1991. He also describes his overland escape to Jordan. US and other foreign journalists; Cable News Network crew; Bombing of the Walid airbast (Iraq); Damage.

The author discusses unpaid writing internships with magazines, focusing on an Ontario law banning internships not affiliated with a college or university and arguing against critics of internships. Topics include articles from the online media company the Huffington Post denouncing internships, the high demand for writing internships, and the suggestion that good writers eventually find jobs.

The article profiles Canadian author and political journalist Ezra Levant. Topics include his 2009 book "Shakedown: How Our Government Is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights," his defence of Alberta's oil sands, and his views on free speech. His opinion and interview show "The Source" is mentioned. Controversy around his views on Islam and anti-Semitism is discussed.

The author discusses the achievements of June Callwood, who died on April 12, 2007 at the age of 82. Professionally, Callwood was a journalist, ghost writer and author, however, compassion was her calling. She helped start dozens of epicenters of social activism, including an AIDS hospice and hostels for abused women.

Presents comments from the editor about the cover story that discusses 101 ways by which ordinary Canadians can help the environment and their own quality of life, as well as his own resignation from "Maclean's. Description of the cover story by Barbara Wickens; Experience of the editor in having a child who recycles and is environmentally conscious; Resignation of the editor from "Maclean's."

This article recalls several phone calls the author, a reporter, has received from prime minister Jean Chrétien. A slow day at the office. The next voice was Jean Chretien's. In 1999, Chretien was preparing to introduce the Clarity Bill, which would forbid the federal government from negotiating Quebec's secession unless Quebecers gave a clear answer to a clear referendum question. As he barrelled out of his hotel past a line of reporters, Chretien spotted Global TV's David Vienneau, stopped cold, and talked golf with Vienneau for five minutes. Two days later the phone rang. It was Chretien. "I felt bad, talking to Vienneau but not you," he said. "I know you don't play golf. You wanna talk about music?" The book was Yves Lavertu's biography of Jean-Charles Harvey, a crusading Quebec journalist who ran into trouble with the Quebec government and the Catholic Church in the 1930s. "This guy Lavertu, he wrote that other book about the Bernonville affair," Chretien said, referring to an obscure post-war political controversy in Quebec. "You know that one?" I confessed I didn't.

Presents the author's remembrance of deceased Canadian radio host Peter Gzowski while working alongside him on the radio program 'Morningside.' Details of Gzowski's personality and mannerisms; Passion for journalism, Canada, and his audience, that Gzowski exemplified.

Presents the experiences of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in Chechnya since the region has been fraught with human rights abuses and widespread destruction. Her book, 'A Dirty War'; View of the media coverage, including that of 'Novaya Gazeta,' of the second Chechen war; Comparison of Chechnya to the war in Afghanistan; Coverage of the plight of Chechen civilians.

Celebrates Canadian columnist Pierre Burton's 80th birthday. Biographical information; Reasons for acknowledgement in 'Maclean's' magazine; Future plans.

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.

Offers rebuttals of the author to angry letters written by readers of his column. Examples of things he has said that made people angry; Suggestion of Doris Anderson that the author misquoted her; His supposed misuse of a Yiddish word; Others.

Offers opinions on Canadian foreign correspondent Matthew Fisher. Travels of Fisher; Interest of the author in Fisher as a result of his travels; Details of his work.

Discusses the differences that exists between news and sports reporting. The rhetorical overkill that sports articles contain; How sports reporting may be upbeat when it is not justified; Resentment that newswriters feel toward sportswriters.

Focuses on the news coverage of the armed conflict in Yugoslavia by Canadian journalists. Reputation of Canadian journalists in international reporting; Need for news from familiar sources with measurable reliability; Track record of Canadian journalists on foreign assignment regarding objectivity in their coverage.