Media & Journalism in Ottawa/Gatineau

[JayBuoy]

Originally Posted by BlueJay

People deserve to have an alternative to the left wing publications that dominates print (online) media.

what left wing publications? I'd like to read them

[Fading Isle]

Originally Posted by wingman

Interesting comment. I find the right has more of a voice than the centre or left these days.

This is a bit dated, but an interesting read. Take it with a grain of salt; but it provokes some thought and provides some information as to who is behind the media companies.

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia....bias-in-canada

A while ago I came across a diagram that showed a history of newspaper federal election endorsements since 1980. For at least the last 20 years it was overwhelmingly Conservative. Obviously, it doesn’t include media outlets that aren’t newspapers like CTV and the CBC, which admittedly is a substantial missing piece in the Canadian media landscape and they don’t do election endorsements anyway, but it’s pretty comprehensive:

https://readpassage.com/wp-content/u...-ownership.png

[rocketphish]

Ottawa Magazine to cease publication after final issue this May
The magazine’s parent company, St. Joseph Communications, publishes several other renowned Canadian media brands, including Maclean’s and Chatelaine.

Liam Fox, Special to the Citizen
Published Mar 21, 2023 • Last updated 6 hours ago • 2 minute read



After 25 years of covering Ottawa’s city politics, culture, notable figures, and local industry, Ottawa Magazine is ceasing publication following its final issue this Spring.

Ottawa Magazine’s managing editor, Robert Hiltz, announced the publication’s closure in his newsletter — Ottawa Lookout.

“Along with working on this newsletter, I’ve also had the pleasure of being the managing editor of Ottawa Magazine,” he wrote. “Sadly, this upcoming Spring issue will be the magazine’s last,” Hiltz wrote in the newsletter on March 20.

“The media business is a tough one, and unfortunately, the parent company has decided to close the publication.”

The magazine’s parent company, St. Joseph Communications (SJC), is the publisher of several other renowned Canadian media brands including Maclean’s, Chatelaine, and Today’s Parent.

The parent company did not respond to this newspaper for comment about the magazine’s shuttering.

While SJC had originally communicated the magazine would be closed, it later changed its stance to temporarily pausing publication, according to Dayanti Karunaratne, editor of Ottawa Magazine.

Karunaratne said the decision to pause and possibly end its publication was due to rising paper costs and an industry trend of increased focus on digitizing media outlets.

“Now anyone would say ‘magazines are going out of style, and everyone reads their content online,’ so that’s obviously a factor as well,” said Karunaratne. “But I think in terms of calculating profits, the cost of paper actually went up.”

Ottawa Magazine’s readership stayed steady over the past few years, including during the pandemic, according to Karunaratne.

“We always had a real presence here and we did our own thing. And there was communication with the parent company, but you know, not on a daily basis. That’s for sure,” said Karunaratne. “So yeah, this came as a bit of a surprise to the Ottawa (Magazine) team.”

“We should have seen it coming perhaps because, you know, print media dies every day,” she added.

Ottawa Magazine’s final edition will be published in early May, according to Karunaratne, and will feature special reflective pieces on previous projects by magazine contributors and photographers, as well as commemorative copies.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...issue-this-may

[rocketphish]

Quebec newspaper chain to stop print editions, cut 100 jobs
The six newspapers had already dropped from daily to weekly, and will now publish only online.

Stéphane Rolland, La Presse Canadienne
Published Mar 29, 2023 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 2 minute read

The Coopérative nationale de l’information indépendante (CN2i) announced Wednesday it will cease printing weekly editions of its six newspapers at the end of the year, and publish solely online.

The move will result in the loss of about 100 positions, of about 350 total for the co-operative. In a story published on its websites, the organization says it hopes voluntary departures will allow it to avoid layoffs.

The six publications had already dropped from daily to weekly print editions at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. A year earlier, the group’s parent company, Groupe Capitales Médias, went into bankruptcy protection, leading to it being sold to its own employees and converted into a co-operative.

Affected are the following six publications:

• Le Soleil in Quebec City
• Le Droit in Ottawa-Gatineau
• Le Nouvelliste in Trois-Rivières
• Le Quotidien in Saguenay
• La Tribune in Sherbrooke
• La Voix de l’Est in Granby

Management has not yet presented a precise plan to the union, said Annick Charette, president of the Fédération nationale des communications et de la culture (CSN). But she said there’s an openness to finding the best way to ensure CN2i’s future with the least impact on employees. “The atmosphere is not confrontational,” she said.

The coop had already instituted a hiring freeze, so the cuts have already begun in a sense, Charette said.

Management could not immediately be reached for comment, but CN2i general manager Geneviève Rossier told the Journal de Montréal that a voluntary departure program would be put in place in June. Before taking this job in March, Rossier led La Presse Canadienne.

The group has promised a new website and new mobile applications during its transformation.

CN2i’s move to online-only publication comes a week after Montreal’s 24 Heures announced it had published its last print edition. The Quebecor-owned publication was a free commuter daily that started in 2001 and reduced its print schedule at the beginning of the pandemic as public transit use plummeted.

In December, the Journal de Montréal and Journal de Québec announced they would stop printing on Sundays. And in October, Postmedia cut Monday print editions of many daily publications including the Montreal Gazette.

https://ottawacitizen.com/business/l...s-cut-100-jobs

[Acajack]

C'est très poche.

(This is very pocket.)

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by vtecyo

"HYPOTHETICALLY" - their site actually has the full article content in the page even when you're not logged in - but they just hide it with some styling.

If you know where to look in a browser you can get around the block. In this case just go to the source code view (ctrl-u in most browsers) then in the new tab that opens search (ctrl-f) and look for "expandable-paywall-premium-content" - and there it is.

The Ottawa Citizen does something similar when you reach your limit of free articles however for the Citizen you just use an ad blocking browser extension - like Ublock Origin - or anything that allows you to block Javascript.

I could post the full article here - but I don't know if that's some kind of rule violation...

Apparently, that would not be allowed.

I always kind of wondered when I posted articles from LeDroit. I have a subscription, so I posted full articles, but that might take away some views and potential business from them.

Seems like now the forum has posted the official rules above the message box. Only the first few sentences of the article are allowed. We can still summarize the article in our own words (more important for media that require a subscription, otherwise it is encouraged that forumers visit the site to read the full article).

[J.OT13]

Another huge loss for local journalism. CBC's Kate Porter joining Carleton University. Will we have any journalists left live tweeting Council meetings? I still don't even know who replaced John Willing at the Ottawa Citizen.

Thursday, June 15, 2023
CBC’s Kate Porter joins Carleton to teach about broadcast journalism and civic engagement



Kate Porter, a veteran Ottawa City Hall reporter for the CBC, is joining Carleton’s School of Journalism and Communication on a one-year appointment to teach courses on broadcast journalism, civic engagement and the future of journalism in the face of misinformation.

Porter has worked at the CBC for more than 20 years, “and during that time the magic of turning on the mic in a sound booth or stepping in front of video camera never got old,” she said. Porter got her start in the industry as a ‘cub reporter’ on CBC Ottawa’s local afternoon radio show while studying journalism at Carleton University followed by summer placements at the CBC station in her Northern Ontario hometown of Thunder Bay.

Porter has always been driven by a keen desire to figure things out, and she’s prepared a few thousand radio, television, and web stories to share those discoveries with the public.

For the past eight years, Porter has covered Ottawa City Hall. She covered the struggles of Ottawa’s new light rail system and the lengthy, illuminating public inquiry that followed. Her live analysis on election-night broadcasts has been rooted in her many years of watching policymaking and politics, and she cares deeply about keeping tabs on public institutions to make sure they’re working for residents of all backgrounds. Porter has also done deep dives on land development and urban planning, told effective data-driven stories, and produced multi-day audio documentaries.

Her reporting has been recognized with a number of awards for individual and team efforts, including for a data-driven series on the rise of acclaimed seats in Ontario municipal elections, and for a radio documentary about a teen athlete who suffered a concussion.

Prior to reporting from City Hall, Porter’s voice was heard regularly delivering radio newscasts and she also covered the arts beat.

“I’m excited to return to my alma mater to work with the next generation of journalists as they develop skills and enthusiasm of their own to seek out information and perspectives, and craft audio and video stories,” Porter said.

As an Instructor, Porter will teach audio and video journalism skills workshops for students in Carleton’s journalism program. She will also deliver a course on civic engagement in the Bachelor of Media Production and Design program, as well as an undergraduate course on how activists, imposters and innovators increasingly crowd in on journalism’s traditional role of delivering fair and reliable news.

“We’re thrilled to have someone of Kate’s calibre join us here at Carleton, to share her wealth of experience in broadcast journalism and also to guide students in engaging more with our civic institutions,’’ said Prof. Allan Thompson, the Journalism Program Head.

Porter takes up her duties on July 1, at the beginning of the new academic year.

https://carleton.ca/sjc/2023/cbcs-ka...ic-engagement/

[harls]

Whenever I am suggested to read an article by CTV Ottawa on my phone, and I see that the author is a 'digital multi-skilled journalist', I just assume it's written by AI.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by harls

Whenever I am suggested to read an article by CTV Ottawa on my phone, and I see that the author is a 'digital multi-skilled journalist', I just assume it's written by AI.

Might as well. There human reporters are garbage anyway.

[harls]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Might as well. There human reporters are garbage anyway.

I once saw Patricia Boal, Megan Shaw, and Katie Griffin (? not sure about the last one, but it was a blonde CTV girl) make their way into a Tim McGraw concert backstage at TD place in 2019.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by harls

I once saw Patricia Boal, Megan Shaw, and Katie Griffin (? not sure about the last one, but it was a blonde CTV girl) make their way into a Tim McGraw concert backstage at TD place in 2019.

All the CTV girls are blond. It's in the job description.

[rocketphish]

Postmedia, Toronto Star owner in merger talks
The two media giants have entered into non-binding discussions on options for combining operational assets, according to company officials

Adrian Humphreys, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jun 27, 2023 • Last updated 13 minutes ago • 3 minute read

Two of Canada’s largest media companies — Postmedia, owner of National Post, Toronto Sun and a large fleet of major Canadian newspapers, and Nordstar, owner of the Toronto Star and smaller city and weekly newspapers — are in talks for a potential merger.

The two media giants have entered into non-binding discussions on options for combining operational assets, according to company officials.

The information was released in response to unusual trading activity in the companies’ securities, said Phyllise Gelfand, vice president of communications for Postmedia, in a written statement released late Tuesday afternoon.

The merged company, which would be jointly owned and jointly controlled by Nordstar and existing Postmedia shareholders has not yet been named. Each side of the transaction would have a 50 per cent voting interest. Postmedia would have a 56 per cent economic interest in the new corporate entity and Nordstar the remaining 44 per cent economic interest.

The two companies’ top executives would remain in positions of authority in the new merged company: Jordan Bitove, publisher of the Toronto Star and owner of Nordstar, would be chairman and Andrew MacLeod, chief executive officer of Postmedia, would be CEO.

“The core rationale for the proposed merger is to create a new entity with reduced debt, national digital scale to compete with the global technology giants and economies of scale in the business model,” said MacLeod.

“The proposed merged entity would provide the best opportunity to ensure strong news media coverage for Canadians from coast to coast. The news media industry in Canada and around the world is under existential threat, new models are urgently required. Scale, reach and efficiency are all prerequisites for future success and to compete with the global technology platforms. Canadians deserve and expect world-class journalism from trusted sources, and we are committed to preserving the editorial independence of all our newsrooms,” added MacLeod.

The Toronto Star would also maintain its editorial independence from the merged entity, with Nordstar retaining a 65 per cent interest in a new entity, Toronto Star Inc., which would manage editorial operations of the Star. Bitove remains publisher of the Toronto daily.

“The viability of the newspaper industry in Canada is at an extreme risk, especially in the small towns and communities that are important to this nation,” said Bitove.

“By pooling resources and working collaboratively, we can ensure that more Canadians have access to trusted journalism and quality reporting. This will strengthen our democracy and protect the fabric of our country. Preserving the editorial independence of our newsrooms, including the Toronto Star, is of particular importance to this arrangement going forward.”

While fierce rivals in news gathering and editorial, corporately, the two media giants have done business together in the past.

In 2020, Torstar accepted a $60 million takeover offer from NordStar Capital LP which was financed by Canso Investment Counsel Ltd., which is a major debtholder of Postmedia, a deal approved by Canada’s Competition Bureau.

NordStar was formed by Bitove and then-partner Paul Rivett to buy Torstar assets in 2020 for $60 million. After a rocky relationship and a public dispute over direction, the two split, leaving Bitove in control of NordStar and Torstar’s media properties.

In 2017 Postmedia, Torstar and a Torstar subsidiary, Metroland Media Group, struck a deal to swap 41 community and small daily newspapers. The subsequent closure of many of the titles drew public complaints and the attention of the Competition Bureau. After an investigation, the bureau declined to take further action.

Both companies have faced economic hardship during increasing digitalization of news which has meant cuts, layoffs and cost reductions.

Negotiations for the media mega-deal are ongoing and the merger is not a done deal, company officials said.

The status of the arrangements are outlined in the form of a non-binding “Letter of Intent” that comes with no assurance of a completed or definitive agreement.

Officials also say an agreement would be subject to closing conditions that may or may not be satisfied.

Postmedia said it would not immediately be releasing additional information on the potential merger.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/canad...3-53811cac0684

[J.OT13]

Anytime major news conglomerates make a move, it spells the death of a hundred newspapers.

In Ottawa, I wouldn't mind the SUN walking into the SUNset, since at this point the Citizen and SUN have just about the exact same content. Honestly very strange they are both still around. I'd choose the Citizen over the SUN as it's less sleezy, more professional and has a long, rich history.

[rocketphish]

Nordstar to put Metroland newspaper group into bankruptcy, more than 70 weekly papers to go digital only

Andrew Willis and Joe Castaldo
The Globe and Mail
Published 3 hours ago | Updated 50 minutes ago

Toronto Star publisher Nordstar Capital LP plans to put its regional newspaper business into bankruptcy on Friday, a move that will see more than 70 weekly papers converted into digital-only platforms and 605 jobs eliminated.

Nordstar-owned Metroland Media Group (MMG) launched a court-supervised restructuring “in response to unsustainable financial losses stemming from the changing preferences of consumers and advertisers,” the company said in a statement. Metroland is also exiting the flyer delivery business. The company said: “We believe this restructuring is essential to MMG’s long-term health and growth.”

Metroland’s bankruptcy means the end of weekly newspapers in many Ontario cities, including Barrie, Dundas, Oakville, Perth and Renfrew. The company is eliminating approximately two thirds of its workforce as it moves to digital platforms.

Approximately a third of the 605 employees losing their jobs work at Metroland’s flyer distribution operations. A third of the cuts are part-time staff. The company said 68 journalists will be laid off. As part of an internal document for employees, receiver Grant Thornton LLP said Metroland will not offer severance or termination pay, due to “insufficient funds.”

Toronto-based Nordstar, controlled by entrepreneur Jordan Bitove, will continue to publish seven daily newspapers in both print and digital formats. Along with the Toronto Star, the titles include the Hamilton Spectator, Peterborough Examiner, St. Catharines Standard, Niagara Falls Review, Welland Tribune and the Waterloo Region Record.

Mr. Bitove teamed up with former insurance executive Paul Rivett to purchase Torstar in 2020 for $60-million. In 2022, Mr. Bitove took full control of the publishing business after a falling out with his partner.

Between 2008 and April, 2021, around 448 news operations have shut down in 323 communities, according to the Canadian Media Directors’ Council, an industry association.

Nordstar said in June that it had entered non-binding talks to merge with Postmedia Network Canada Corp, the country’s largest newspaper chain and owner of the National Post and major city titles. The companies said that a combination was necessary to combat the “existential threat” facing the industry, which has seen print advertising and circulation revenue plummet as tech giants such as Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. and Google owner Alphabet Inc. have captured an increasing amount of revenue from advertisers.

The publishers called off talks in July, with Nordstar citing the “financial uncertainty” of the proposal. Postmedia is laden with debt, and The Globe and Mail reported that the company’s major lender, Chatham Asset Management, wanted to retain a significant amount of debt rather than convert it to equity in the new entity, scuttling the deal.

Postmedia chief executive officer Andrew MacLeod said the assertion was inaccurate, and the deal was called off because of the “unstable landscape as it pertains to Google and Facebook.”

The federal government introduced Bill C-18, the Online News Act, which would compel tech platforms to strike financial agreements with publishers for posting or linking to their content. Both Nordstar and Postmedia have been strong supporters of the legislation, which has been met with fierce resistance by tech companies.

Meta began blocking Canadians’ access to news on Facebook and Instagram starting in August in response to the legislation. Google has said it will do the same on its platforms unless its objections to the law are addressed.

Nordstar’s decision to move its weekly publications to a digital-only format could save costs, but industry experts say in the past, the strategy has often failed to create a profitable, sustainable business. “The problem with that is that audiences see less and less material that’s relevant to their own communities,” said Christopher Waddell, an emeritus professor of journalism at Carleton University. “At some point, the audience says, ‘Well, what’s the point of continuing to subscribe to this?’”

With Metroland laying off journalists, the challenge for the company is to maintain enough local news to entice readers. “The ultimate focus is the editorial content,” said Mr. Waddell. “It’s not much of a surprise that news organizations are finally making the decision to get out of print media, because the economics just don’t work anymore.”

“When the Star tried to do the deal with Postmedia, Metroland was a big part of that. it was pretty clear that Mr. Bitove thought that Metroland wasn’t going to be part of the Star’s future, or didn’t want it to be,” said Mr. Waddell.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/busi...-more-than-70/

[rocketphish]

Rogers Media lays off multiple CityNews Ottawa staff

David Sali, OBJ
October 26, 2023 11:50 AM ET

Rogers Media has laid off multiple employees at its CityNews Ottawa operations effective Wednesday morning, OBJ has learned.

A source close to the organization says the media conglomerate told employees it plans to shut down the station’s news operations. Newsroom staff, including on-air personalities such as Sam Laprade, producers, anchors and other employees were told their employment with the station was terminated as of Thursday morning.

Rogers Media officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

More to come…

https://obj.ca/breaking-rogers-media...-ottawa-staff/

[harls]

^ I noticed today that CityNews 101.1 is now a country station.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by harls

^ I noticed today that CityNews 101.1 is now a country station.

Oh God no! Seems like every station that shut down over the last few years has become a country station. It's taking over!

[Uhuniau]

"Country", meaning, basically, what they called "Easy Listening" in the 80s.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

"Country", meaning, basically, what they called "Easy Listening" in the 80s.

Nothing "easy" about listening to country

[harls]

I tuned to it again today in my car. All it says is 'Country' for the information. Looks like it was made hastily. And it was so easy listening I turned it off.