Journalism.co.uk Editors' Blog » Canada

The Star: ‘Locked-out’ Canadian journalists lead scandal coverage

Laura Oliver — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:44:31 +0000

What do you do when you’re locked out from your own paper? Set up a website of course and investigate the allegations and goings-on behind the stand-off.

Such is the story of Canadian website Ruefrontenac.com, the work of 253 employees from Quebec newspaper Journal de Montreal who have been ‘locked out’ by their employer Quebecor following dispute over jobs and working hours between the publisher and the union.

“Ruefrontenac.com has set up in an old dance studio overlooking the Journal’s parking lot.

“The journalists choose their own topics to write about without having to consider corporate interests, Bousquet [Richard Bousquet, the website's co-ordinator] said. ‘It’s a bit of a journalistic experiment.’

“Journalists divide their time producing content and picketing.”

Full story at this link…

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New Rue89 venture for Canada goes live

Laura Oliver — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:25:33 +0000

As we reported last month, Quebec89, the new venture from independent French news organisation Rue89, has gone live.

The new site also has a nascent Twitter account.

The site is a partnership with Quebec-based internet company Branchez-vous.com and will feature content from Rue89, which was recently shortlisted for a Online News Association’s general excellence award, and employ a three-person team to produce some local content, Pierre Haski, Rue89 founder, told Journalism.co.uk prior to launch.

The new Canadian site follows previous expanison by Rue89 after the launch a local French news site covering Marseille, Marseille89.

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Vancouver’s Tyee raises $15,000 in reader donations

Laura Oliver — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:36:07 +0000

From Alfred Hermida’s Reportr.net comes news that Tyee, an online news site based in Vancouver, has raised $15,000 since asking readers to donate money.

Contributions asked for to fund provincial election coverage and, according to editor David Beers, the money equates to double Tyee’s monthly reporting budget.

Beers discusses the campaign’s success in this video interview:

The Tyee has never asked readers directly for money before – though it does have a foundation to fund some reporting, says Tyee.

The response from readers in this instance has exceeded expectation – interesting to note the ’serious’ nature of the stories being invested in. Readers are empowering journalists, giving them the resources, and telling them where to deploy them and on what issues; they’re not asking for editorial control, adds Beers.

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Editor&Publisher: Canada’s print readership outperforms online newspapers

Laura Oliver — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:51:54 +0000

According to figures from the Newspaper Audience Databank, almost 75 per cent of Canadian adults read a newspaper in print each week compared with less than 20 per cent, who read an online edition during the week.

Full story at this link…

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Canadian Association of Journalists: Job cuts impact quality journalism

John Thompson — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:23:00 +0000

A news release that claims job cuts by Canadian media owners could lead to "our news becoming nothing more than rewritten press releases". "The decisions taken this fall will lead to more centralization of news in Canada, fewer opportunities for Canadians to learn from different voices and will threaten the very existence of quality local and investigative reporting," says Canadian Association of Journalists president Mary Agnes Welch. The CAJ fears "journalism in Canada is reaching a tipping point where the decline in the quality of news content will lead to an industry death spiral of less content, smaller audiences, and yet more cuts".

EditorsWeblog: New web and mobile site for Quebec’s 24 heures

Judith Townend — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:54:41 +0000

Quebec's free daily, 24 heures (24 hours), has launched a website and mobile site, accessible at m.24heures.ca.

OPA 08: 47% of weekly unique users to BBC News site are non-UK

Laura Oliver — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:06:19 +0000

Pete Clifton, head of editorial development for multimedia journalism at the BBC, has said 47 per cent of the 17 million weekly unique users to the BBC News website come from outside of the UK.

Around half of these users, he told the Online Publishers Association conference, are from the US with a strong ex-pat following, but growing interest from US nationals in the BBC’s news coverage.

The site is also popular in India and Canada, Clifton added.

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Editor with BBC News leaves for NowPublic

Laura Oliver — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:00:45 +0000

Rachel Nixon, deputy world editor with BBCNews.com, is to join Canada-based ‘participatory news network’ NowPublic as its global news director, according to a press release posted on Alfred Hermida’s blog.

In her new role Nixon, who has worked for BBCNews.com for nine years, will be responsible for the editorial operations of the site’s citizen correspondents, who span 3,600 cities across more than 140 countries.

“The NowPublic team has blazed trails from day one and clearly mainstream media is now embracing the media model that NowPublic originated,” she said on her appointment.

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