Best online news source(s) in your community

[DizzyEdge]

I was going to selectively ask in a few forums this question, but I thought it might be interesting to ask the general question in this forum.

So the question is, what is the best online news source in your community (city/town), which could include one or all of:
- best newspaper which has an online presence
- best weekly
- best blog

I'm particularly interested in Vancouver/Toronto/Montreal and perhaps Halifax or something more 'Maritimes' in general, but curious for all cities and towns.

I'll start if off:

Calgary


- Calgary Herald - www.Calgaryherald.com - (daily newspaper)
- Fast Forward Weekly - ffwdweekly.com - (weekly newspaper)

Not sure of a blog per se, perhaps someone else would chime in.

[White Pine]

Deep River, Ontario- the North Renfrew Times . Our only media.

[MTLskyline]

Here's some for Montreal/south shore

- best newspaper which has an online presence

• Montreal Gazette (EN) - the only anglo daily
• La Presse (FR) - most comprehensive website, best overall newspaper of the 3 French dailies

- best weekly - Weeklies are a little tougher in Montreal since a lot of them cater to specific neighbourhoods. Since I live on the south shore, I will suggest some of those instead

• St. Lambert Journal (bilingual) - Independent newspaper, no website
• Le Courrier du Sud (FR) - Most comprehensive Longueuil weekly

- best blog

• Coolopolis (EN) - Interesting Montreal history blog that tends to focus a lot on crimes that took place years ago
• Vanishing Montreal (EN) - Not updated frequently, but it does have photos of developments going up
• Montréalités Urbaines (FR) - Montreal urban news

[vid]

All of the news sources in my community are crap. The media conglomerate owned by our TV station only posts offensive comments to its web stories, the local paper doesn't provide much content for free, and the local "independent" news website is a poorly organized, malfunctioning website that operates more like a blog than a news source.

The first one is a good reinforcer of what a shit hole this city is. I call it "TBNewsRacistComments".

[haligonia]

Halifax:
- The Chronicle Herald: Decent, run-of-the-mill local daily
-The Coast: A local arts weekly with an urban focus. The Coast is controversial and often biased, but still tends to do a phenomenal job of covering local news stories.
- OpenFile Halifax The Halifax outpost of the national online news upstart. Solid, original local coverage. OpenFile did an especially excellent job of covering the Occupy NS protest (and eventual eviction).
- AllNovaScotia: A subscription-based blog with a focus on business. I don't have a subscription, but it seems to be a reliable enough source for local news.

That's all I could think of off the top of my head. Hopefully some other Halifax forumers can add to this list.

[davidivivid]

Quebec City

• Québec Urbain - Very simple, interesting and popular blog centered around urbanism. It has a very faithful readership and is said to be influencial at the municipal level.
  http://www.quebecurbain.qc.ca/
  
• Chronicle Telegraph - Quebec City's sole english newspaper which has the distinction of being North America's oldest newspaper since it was founded in 1724. It offers a great insight on Quebec's anglophone community and on the city in general.
  http://www.qctonline.com/
  
• Québec Hebdo - Grouping of all the small weekly newspapers printed in the region. Pretty decent and updated frequently.
  http://www.quebechebdo.com/
  
• La Presse
  http://www.cyberpresse.ca/

[ue]

Edmonton

- Edmonton Journal - the best local daily in Edmonton (though only competition is the trashy Edmonton Sun). Some great articles and writers, including on urban planning, architecture, and other SSP themes. Though some stuff isn't the greatest and the comments are routinely atrocious (as with any conventional news site these days). http://www.edmontonjournal.com/index.html

- Mastermaq - local Edmonton blogger who focuses a lot on the urban planning and architecture of Edmonton, including opinions on new projects, things that are sorely lacking as resources/infrastructure in Edmonton, comparisons/examples from other cities that would work well in Edmonton. Mastermaq also lives a highly urbane lifestyle, residing on Downtown Edmonton's hottest street, 104 St, as well as walking to work (or bussing? Can't remember for sure. Maybe that's his wife?) He has also shared his opinion in more mainstream media such as the CBC most recently. http://blog.mastermaq.ca/

Someone else from Edmonton can post a Weekly.

[SpongeG]

Vancouver:

news etc:
Georgia straight - weekly http://www.straight.com/
Vancouver Courier - http://www.vancourier.com/index.html
it has sister publications all over - like North Shore News, Richmond News, Royal City Record (new west) etc all accessible from their site - focusing on that citys local news
we Vancouver (west ender newspaper) http://www.wevancouver.com/
Vancouver Sun Daily - http://www.vancouversun.com/index.html

CTV BC http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/

some blogs:
vancity buzz http://www.vancitybuzz.com/
Miss 604 http://www.miss604.com/
Vancouver is Awesome http://vancouverisawesome.com/
Scout Magazine http://scoutmagazine.ca/ << good for foodies, restaurants, retail goings on

[mylesmalley]

New Brunswick is now in a weird bit of media turmoil haha.

We've still got the CBC, which provides pretty decent radio, tv and online coverage across the province. Sometimes they leave a bit to be desired, but they generally get the facts right.

There are a few news radio stations owned by Rogers which are alright as well, but they are hilariously repetitive. A traffic report in Moncton may be nice on some days at rush hour, but at 2pm, 2:10pm, 2:40pm....

There are a few local stations from the big networks that do some 'local' news. Both Global and ATV/CTV have broadcasts from Halifax that are supposed to cover the Maritimes, but they're pretty Halifax slanted.

Now for newspapers...

Print media in New Brunswick is dominated by Brunswick News, which is an Irving company. Dominated is a bit of an understatement though, because they own all but one daily newspaper in the province (the one they don't is the only French daily, l'Acadie Nouvelle). They also own at least a dozen local, weekly, and community papers. There have been Senate committees on their level of media ownership. There have been protests. There have been attempts to start rival papers...but none of them make it more than a few weeks.

Their content is usually either laughably local and 'folksy' in nature, or culled from wire services. It sadly isn't' uncommon for the Times and Transcript in Moncton to run an article about a church bake sale on the front page. We're no Toronto, but a city of 140k and a newspaper circulation of more than 40k a day ought to be able to do better. Although the Telegraph Journal in Saint John does have its moments.

Which brings me to the most interesting point. Up until a month ago, Brunswick News had a website where all of their articles were available online. Then they added a paywall. A $19.99 a month paywall that prevents you from even seeing the headlines. So effectively they've gotten out of the online business altogether.

I don't begrudge them for charging online. if they can't make a go of it through advertising alone, so be it. But their business model is laughably flawed. Essentially, because they're offering to give you access to 19 newspapers, they're expecting you're willing to pay for them all. They've even repeatedly compared it to the New York Times. Anyway, /endofrant.

[kirjtc2]

Let's not forget Brunswick News' open political bias, to the point where they openly campaigned for the sale of NB Power, literally made up a front-page story about Stephen Harper stealing a communion wafer, fired a reporter for writing a story even slightly critical of Shawn Graham, etc, etc, etc.

And then they have the gall to charge more than the New York Times for the "privilege" of reading their claptrap. Everything they do smacks of a dick monopoly move.

That's why I'm worried about the cutbacks to the CBC. In this province, when it comes to decent news coverage, CBC is literally all we have.

[Marty_Mcfly]

St. John's

The Telegram - Daily newspaper, usually a reliable source for news. I've never noticed any huge problems with their articles.

VOCM - Operate a chain of province-wide radio stations, often specializing in call-in talk shows and whatnot. News is fairly reliable, though their website usually posts sub-par articles that are only a few sentences long, and are often quite skimpy with details. Typos are sometimes posted, but still a go-to site for quick, up-to-date news.

CBC - With three (I believe) radio stations broadcasting in St. John's, as well as one TV station, CBC is everywhere. Website usually has well written news articles, though sometimes they can be quite skimpy like VOCM, and even biased. Basically what you'd expect from CBC everywhere else across Canada.

The Independent - An independent news source. They used to print, I'm not sure if that's the case anymore. Don't know much about this news source, though they typically print news articles that other outlets aren't, and may be more of a personal opinion site more than not.

The Scope - Young adult oriented paper, printed bi-weekly, with an up-to-date website. Less about news, more about happenings around town, with concert listings, interviews, etc.

The Muse - Memorial University's student newspaper. From what I've read out of it, it's crap printed on paper. Huge bias, unprofessional, uncoordinated crap.

NTV/OZ FM/The Herald - I hate to mention anything from Sterling Communications, but they run a magazine, radio station, and TV station. The news is almost as painful to watch as puppies being tortured. The station is basically a Global TV/CTV hybrid, the company is afraid to devote all their programming to one station in fear that the other will set up shop in town.

[eternallyme]

National news, not sure the best, but the WORST are Sun News and Rabble.ca (yes, on opposite extremes)

[DizzyEdge]

I've actually been wondering how the Toronto section of the Globe and Mail compares to any of the local Toronto dailies.

[bulliver]

Originally Posted by ue

Edmonton

- Mastermaq - local Edmonton blogger who focuses a lot on the urban planning and architecture of Edmonton, including opinions on new projects, things that are sorely lacking as resources/infrastructure in Edmonton, comparisons/examples from other cities that would work well in Edmonton. Mastermaq also lives a highly urbane lifestyle, residing on Downtown Edmonton's hottest street, 104 St, as well as walking to work (or bussing? Can't remember for sure. Maybe that's his wife?) He has also shared his opinion in more mainstream media such as the CBC most recently. http://blog.mastermaq.ca/

Someone else from Edmonton can post a Weekly.

Yeah...Mack Male is great. Lots of good stuff. He's so on the ball he even wrote a post about me

As for the free dailies, 24 and Metro, they are both 'news-lite' good for little more than wasting time on the bus or train. Haven't read the Examiner in years.

Vue Weekly is the best source for arts/entertainment/culture/cuisine. Their news/opinion pieces are a bit left-wing even for me, and I'm pretty damn liberal.

[vid]

Originally Posted by eternallyme

National news, not sure the best, but the WORST are Sun News and Rabble.ca (yes, on opposite extremes)

I've never even heard of Rabble.ca. Obviously, the media has a left wing bias.

[bulliver]

Oops, forgot about the Charrette, an Edmonton blog focusing on urban planning and design:
http://thecharrette.ca/

[Trevor3]

Western Newfoundland: (Specifically the Bay of Islands and Bay St. George)

The Western Star - Daily paper for western Newfoundland. It tends to focus on Corner Brook and the Humber Valley with a slight bias (ie: calling all Corner Brook sports teams powerhouses, no matter what). If you overlook that, it's quite reliable but it still filters over into just about everything they publish.

The Georgian - Weekly paper for Bay St. George. It is the only weekly on the west coast other than the Gulf News in Port-aux-Basques since the Humber Log ceased operating a few years back. It's strictly Stephenville/BSG for local, but they also cover provincially as well and do a nice job of it. The Georgian updates their webpage daily, the Gulf News does not.

CornerBrooker.com - Blog for Corner Brook and area. It has a great following and although I don't read it much (I'm from S'ville and live in St. John's now), from what I have seen they do a great job promoting the community and have some insightful opinion pieces. Just this week they had a write-up on downtown business development, or lack thereof.

The Troubadour - College of the North Atlantic's journalism program's new production. Take the CornerBrooker blog and cross it with NTV news and you get this. Some stories seems to lose their focus but it generally is great for promoting local items and its kept light for good reason, these are just students.

Le Gaboteur - Pour les nouvelles en francais, chaque semaine. While it comes from St. John's, they have a presence with the french speaking population and cover many events from the Port au Port Peninsula.

CFCBCFSX - Part of the VOCM network: CFCB = Corner Brook; CFSX = Stephenville. Same provincial news and overall programming, but produce their own local news with items from their respective service areas. CFCB also plays more up to date country music, CFSX is stuck in the damn 1950s. Same online presence as VOCM with short blurbs, they really want you to turn on the radio.

All television news comes from St. John's via CBC or NTV which, as was mentioned above, has a newscast which is painfully unprofessional and unpolished while the station seems to have a permanent mess of programming in general.

CBC Radio, while I never listen to it, has a great reputation on the west coast of the island.

[Marty_Mcfly]

Originally Posted by Trevor3

All television news comes from St. John's via CBC or NTV which, as was mentioned above, has a newscast which is painfully unprofessional and unpolished while the station seems to have a permanent mess of programming in general.

CBC Radio, while I never listen to it, has a great reputation on the west coast of the island.

Some people really enjoy how eccentric Geoff Sterling is. I'm all for pre-empting the NTV news hour for Inspector Gadget (which he has done before).

As for CBC Radio, specifically CBC Radio 2, when not playing classical music, I quite enjoy the music they play. Way better than OZ, K-ROCK, Hits or Coast. I even like listening to CHMR when the station is playing music, and not full of pretentious kids talking about things they don't understand.

[DizzyEdge]

Somewhat on topic, there is news in the twittersphere that the Globe and Mail online will be going pay in the fall.

[mylesmalley]

...that would be a shame.